COLOMBIANS celebrated “D-Day” for peace yesterday after congress backed a revised peace accord with communist rebels.

The lower house unanimously approved the treaty with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) on Wednesday, ending months of uncertainty over a deal that took four years to negotiate.

Opponents of peace after 52 years of war — led by former president Alvaro Uribe — boycotted the vote, knowing they would lose.

The first vote in the senate on Tuesday went the same way.

“There needs to be a balance between peace and justice, but in this agreement there’s complete impunity,” Mr Uribe, now a senator, said during a debate on Tuesday.

But as president he successfully pushed for impunity for far-right paramilitary death squad members in 2005.

Mr Uribe led the campaign that narrowly defeated the first accord in the October 2 referendum, marred by low turnout blamed on Hurricane Matthew.

The congress vote is just the first in a series of steps to peace under the deal, with more laws and disarmament scheduled to follow.

President Juan Manuel Santos said: “Tomorrow D-Day begins,” paraphrasing Farc negotiator Pastor Alape following last week’s signing of the revised deal.

“In five days begins the transfer of all members of the Farc to the transition verification zones.”

And within 150 days “the Farc will have delivered their last weapon to the UN … and will have ceased to exist.”

But Farc commander Rodrigo Londono, known as Timochenko, pointed out that within 30 days congress must pass an amnesty law for rebels to pave the way for their demobilisation and entry into electoral politics.

Changes to the August accord include a prohibition on foreign judges ruling on crimes by government or Farc forces, and a commitment from the rebels to forfeit assets to compensate victims of the violence — although two-thirds of killings were perpetrated by paramilitaries.

But the Farc rejected demands for jail sentences for rebel leaders and stricter limits on their future participation in politics.

Two Farc guerillas were killed by troops a fortnight ago on their way to a demob area, with witnesses saying they were ambushed.

And several peasant land reform leaders have recently been assassinated, raising fears of a return to the death squad days.

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