By JUAN FORERO
 
BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Nov. 25 - Some 450 paramilitaries in Colombia's banana-growing north, the cradle of death squads that evolved into the antiguerrilla militia in the 1990's, disarmed on Thursday.

It was among the first of several demobilizations intended to take 3,000 paramilitary fighters out of the chaotic conflict in Colombia.

Members of the so-called Banana Bloc of the militia, the United Self-Defense Forces, laid down their assault rifles, mortars and other weapons as the government's peace negotiator, Luis Carlos Restrepo, looked on at a soccer stadium in Turbo, near the Panamanian border.

"We hope, we ask God, that this contributes to peace in Colombia," President Álvaro Uribe told reporters in Cartagena.

The first major paramilitary disarmament took place a year ago, when 850 members of a Medellín-based militia demobilized. But human rights groups, diplomats and some government officials later called the event a carefully orchestrated show that disarmed common criminals, not hardened death squad fighters.

In Turbo, children sang and the national anthem was played as a line of men in fatigues laid down their arms. The removal of the Banana Bloc from the conflict is part of a gradual disarmament that by the end of the year is to total 3,000 fighters in 11 units spread across this country.

The United Self-Defense Forces, a 15,000-man coalition of militias financed by landowners and cocaine trafficking, has pledged to completely disarm by December 2005. Considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the group has killed thousands of civilians in a campaign that has forced two Marxist rebel groups from much of the country.

The United States has indicted at least 10 paramilitary commanders on drug trafficking charges and is seeking their extradition. On Wednesday, Colombia's Supreme Court approved the extradition of Salvatore Mancuso, the group's most visible leader, who was indicted in 2002 on trafficking charges.

Mr. Mancuso, though, has a government safe-conduct pass that shields him from arrest, and the Colombian government has signaled that it may be flexible on the question of extradition in disarmament talks.

The threat of extradition, though, did little to dampen the festivities in Turbo, which Mr. Mancuso attended. "Today, we offer a major gesture which will lead to the re-incorporation of combatants of the Self-Defense Forces into civilian life," he told reporters.

While most of the Banana Bloc's fighters will probably receive amnesty, Western diplomats and some members of Colombia's Congress worry that no legal framework is in place to deal with men like Mr. Mancuso, who technically remains a combatant and faces accusations of crimes against humanity.

"The lack of a legal framework that covers those who are demobilizing means that, in effect, what we have is a technical amnesty going on," said Gustavo Petro, a left-leaning congressman critical of the negotiations.

A multiparty group in Congress led by Senator Rafael Pardo wants to enact a law that would call for jail terms of at least eight years for the top commanders.

The Uribe administration, though, has expressed concerns over conditions in that law that make judicial benefits contingent on paramilitary commanders ensuring a complete dismantling of their forces while turning over information on the group, confessing to their crimes, helping with criminal investigations and providing reparations to victims.