Women attend an homage of former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, for Jorge Briceno, one of their most-prominent and despised military strategists, at a cemetery in southern Bogota, Colombia, Friday, Sept. 22, 2017. Briceno was killed by the Colombian Army on Sep. 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)
Republished September 22, 2017 - 5:09 PM
Original Publication Date September 22, 2017 - 3:46 PM
FUNZA, Colombia - The United Nations has finished deactivating thousands of weapons and munitions that once belonged to demobilized leftist rebels in Colombia.
In a ceremony Friday attended by President Juan Manuel Santos but which was skipped by leaders of the now-disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the head of the U.N. mission in Colombia, Jean Arnault, said international observers spread across the country had collected a total of 8,994 firearms and more than 38 tons of explosives from the rebels.
A team of 15 German specialists needed six weeks to cut through the metal weapons so they can't be fired ever again.
"The disarmament process is over," said Santos after receiving a recently disabled AR-15 assault rifle that he called the "last gun" of the decades-long conflict.
News from © The Associated Press, 2017