Gunmen murder former Colombian militia boss

BOGOTA, Dec 29 (Reuters) Gunmen shot and killed a former Colombian militia leader as he ate in a restaurant in the third killing this month of paramilitaries demobilised under a peace deal with President Alvaro Uribe's government.

The killings come as militia chiefs began testifying about massacres, kidnappings and murders committed during Colombia's conflict and Uribe fends off a scandal linking some of his congressional allies to the illegal right-wing gangs.

Jairo Andres Angarita, who was a close associate of top paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso and had tried to run as a local politician, was gunned down by two men in Medellin on Wednesday evening, police said yesterday.

''This is a murder that naturally has implications for the process of justice and peace,'' Interior Minister Carlos Holguin told Caracol radio.

Mancuso last week become the first leading militia leader to testify before prosecutors about his crimes as part of the deal that allows the warlords to serve light jail terms for full confessions and payment of compensation to victims.

Authorities say they have tightened security for the families of former commanders who say they have received death threats before testifying.

Close associates of paramilitary leaders Rodrigo ''Jorge 40'' Tovar and Diego Fernando Murillo, or ''Don Berna,'' were also killed this month in Medellin.

With the help of millions in US aid, Uribe has reduced violence from Colombia's 40-year conflict. Leftist rebels have been pushed back to the jungles and mountains and more than 31,000 illegal paramilitaries have handed in their weapons in a peace accord with the government.

Rights groups say the paramilitary bosses, some of whom are wanted for extradition to the United States, are being allowed to keep their criminal networks intact while their associates keep trafficking cocaine.

The paramilitaries were established in the 1980s by wealthy landowners to defend themselves against Marxist rebels in rural areas where the state had little presence. They soon waged a bloody counterinsurgency and killed many peasants suspected of guerrilla sympathies.

Reuters SBA VP0428