Source: Houston Chronicle Contact: Pubdate: Sat, 08 Nov 1997 Page: 23A Website: http://www.chron.com/ Colombia's top court, in 54 ruling, upholds controversial armed citizen groups By Frank Bajak Associated Press BOGOTA, Colombia Colombia's highest court on Friday upheld the legality of armed citizens' groups, which critics say have overstepped their mandate and committed serious human rights abuses. By a 54 vote, the Constitutional Court said the groups, known as Convivir, may continue to operate but must surrender all arms except handguns within 48 hours. The court's president, Antonio Barrera, said the decision endorses the will of "9 million Colombians who approved the mandate for peace," a vague ballot issue in Oct. 26 nationwide elections. President Ernesto Samper said the decision gives citizens the legitimate right to defend themselves. "You cannot deny a citizen the right, under limits established by law and the constitution, to defend their life and property," he said during a visit to Cartagena in northern Colombia. Convivir, whose name means "getting along," was started with the government's approval to counter leftist rebels. Members are supposed to give intelligence to police and the military, and proponents say they have reduced kidnappings and other crimes by guerrillas. But several of the groups have been implicated in killings, and though authorities have asked that these be disbanded, none has had its license revoked. Human rights groups say Convivir abuses range from "social cleansing" in urban areas the killing of petty thieves, drug addicts and prostitutes to helping paramilitary groups kill suspected rebel collaborators. They also claim Convivir has hundreds of machine guns and other heavy weapons, a charge denied by the federal Office of Private Security that oversees the groups. The federal ombudsman, Jose Castro Caicedo, and the U.N. special envoy for human rights, Almudena Mazarrasa, argued before the court in August that the groups were unconstitutional. "We've always said they had offensive, militarystyle weapons," Caicedo said Friday. "Until today, they have been operating without any control." A judge who voted against the groups, Valdimiro Naranjo, called Convivir "a form of paramilitarism that involves civilians in the armed conflict" and said they violate international humanitarian law spelled out in the Geneva conventions. Colombia has 414 registered Convivir groups. The president of the national Convivir federation, who uses the pseudonym Carlos Diaz, denied they are involved in any atrocities. He says they have fewer than 400 weapons none of them rifles among 5,500 employees and 300,000 volunteers nationwide. Colombia has about 1,000 groups similar to Convivir, less than half of which are registered, Diaz said. Convivir supporters have said that if declared illegal, the groups would merely go underground. Also Friday, the high court declared illegal any group formed to protect multinational corporations, such as oil companies, because such a group would be performing a service constitutionally restricted to the armed forces.