Colombia to set up special war crimes courts

Bogota: Colombia's senate has approved a constitutional reform that creates special war crimes courts, a key component of the historic peace agreement reached with FARC guerrillas ending five decades of warfare.

The announcement was made via Twitter by Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo yesterday, who was in the senate at the time of the vote.

President Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize in October for his efforts to end his country's 53-year conflict, which has drawn in numerous leftist rebel groups, right-wing paramilitary units, drug cartels and the army.

The court system, which allows for war crimes reparations, is the backbone of the peace deal the Santos administration reached in November with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels.

After the senate vote, Defence Minister Luis Carlos Villegas addressed the lawmakers to express thanks in the name of the Colombian armed forces for approving the measure.

The court system has three parts: a truth commission, a unit to search for missing people, and a temporary, autonomous body to administer justice for crimes committed during the armed conflict before December 1, 2016.

The FARC launched its guerrilla war against the Colombian government in 1964, after a peasant uprising that was crushed by the army.

Under the peace deal negotiated by Santos's government, the FARC will transform into a political party and its 5,700 fighters will demobilise over a period of six months.

The group began disarming in early March, a process overseen by United Nations monitors.