Human Rights activists have asked the US government in Washington to withdraw support for the Peace and Justice law because in their opinion, the law only guarantees immunity for paramilitaries in Colombia.

Three activists from the Movement for Victims of State sponsored crime will visit the US Congress and the State Department to denounce this law, proposed this year by the Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and which has as its objective the demobilisation of thousands of members of illegally armed groups.

This movement was set up this year and brings together 230 trade unions, human rights organisations and relatives of those missing in Colombia. "We want to inform the international community about what’s happening in Colombia. This law…. Will give impunity to committed crimes…. will strengthen paramilitarism and had been brought about at the expense of victims", Milliret Moncada from the Association for the Relatives of the Missing, explained to journalists.

"We would like to have our right to the Truth, Justice and Reparation respected", said Moncada whose father Huberto, has been missing since 6 June1983.

Luis Javier Correa, National Union of Workers in the Food Industry (Sinaltainall) criticised AUC and stated they were an ' undercover State operatives' who sought only to protect foreign multinationals operating in Colombia.

According to Correa, the Justice and Peace law is one of ' excuses and amnesia' and legalises paramilitary structures and sees the country heading towards the extreme right '.

He added that the 'full' reparation for victims must deal with all aspects of the distribution of lands, of wealth and a lasting peace agreement.

Marleny Orjuela, of the Colombian Association of Relatives of Members of Public Security personnel held hostage or freed by rebel groups, stressed that the movement was neither in favour of the guerrilla or paramilitaries but punishment for those responsible for human rights violations was required.

As regards the problem of hostages, Orjuela regretted that negotiations to bring about a humanitarian agreement were 'deadlocked'.

The tour of the three activists 'called "The Latin American Working Group" took place the day after the "National Security Archives", a project of the George Washington University when classified documents concerning links between some members of security forces and AUC paramilitaries in Colombia were revealed.

These documents provided the names of senior civil servants in Colombia, describing the various "institutional " pressures to encourage collaboration with paramilitaries ranging from 'tacit acceptance " to direct participation.

"What is new is that documents form the US government were found there in which attacks by paramilitaries such as the ones at La Labara and Taboo in 1999. It was more than policy of collaboration, it is an institutionalised culture" to allow paramilitary activity, said EFE Michael Evans, analyst of the National Archives.

"With this project, what we want is to identify, obtain and broadcast in Colombia documents that can be used as a basis for public debate, in a country where a high percentage of this information is suppressed", he added.

The visit of the activists of the Movement comes at a time when the two Houses of Congress in the US have planned to coordinate, in a single government bill, their respective budgets for overseas operations for the fiscal year 2006, which includes American aid to Colombia.

The final draft of the bill will decide the future direction of the "Plan Colombia" against "narcoterrorism" to which the US has given about 3,300 million dollars since 2000.

This government bill lays down conditions, the amount and rate of aid given by the US to the Colombian government. In this case, the version agreed by the Senate limits military aid and increases aid for development projects as well as imposing restrictions regarding the use of funds for the spraying of illegal crops.