Six Colombians who will represent the FARC rebels in Congress as it implements a historic peace deal presented their new political party.
Dubbed Voices for Peace and Reconciliation, the party will hold three non-voting seats in each house of Congress.
Under the peace accord signed on November 24, the representatives will act on the rebels' behalf as lawmakers debate a series of bills to put in place the measures agreed under the deal.
FARC members themselves will not take part. The rebels plan to launch their own political party once they have disarmed.
"Our voices will be the voices of the peace accord," said leftist economist Imelda Daza, who will sit in the lower house, at a press conference yesterday announcing the new party.
The other members in the lower house are student leader Jairo Rivera and leftist activist Francisco Jose Tolosa.
In the Senate, the rebels will be represented by constitutional lawyer Pablo Cruz, economist Jairo Estrada and human rights activist Judith Maldonado.
Launched in 1964, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is about to begin handing over its weapons under a UN-monitored demobilization process.
The Constitutional Court has meanwhile approved special fast-track procedures in Congress to implement the controversial peace deal.
The first measure on the agenda is an amnesty for rebels' "political crimes" -- though it will not cover war crimes such as massacres, rape and torture.
Voters rejected an earlier version of the deal in a referendum in October, forcing the government and FARC to revise the accord before again taking it for approval -- but this time by Congress.
The Colombia conflict has killed more than 260,000 people and left 45,000 missing.
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