Nearly a thousand paramilitaries lay down their arms on Tuesday in Colombia. Much media attention has been given to this action but it has equally been criticised by Human Rights Watch (HRW) who condemn the dangers that go along with such an amnesty deal.

TV channels in Colombia broadcast pictures of more than 900 soldiers from extreme right wing groups as they gave up their guns in the province of Cordoba in the northeast of the country. In all 4000 paramilitaries have done likewise as part of the peace process ratified by the government.

But for HRW these operations are not helping to improve the situation in Colombia, a country confronted for more than 40 years by left wing guerrillas against whom paramilitaries have been mobilised.

The human rights organisation thinks that the authorities are wrong to allow an amnesty for crimes committed by these paramilitaries who have admitted their guilt in crimes at least as serious as those committed by the Marxist rebels.

"There is a danger that this process of demobilisation will leave intact the basic structures of these violent groups whose crimes will carry an amnesty and that their illegally earned finances will be retained " stated HRW in a report published on Tuesday.

The paramilitaries who have often collaborated with the army were originally part of a private militia founded in the 1980's by landlords of estates in order to defend themselves especially against the FARC. Officially the Colombian government condemns the actions of such paramilitaries.