edition of "inside story." in washington, i'm ray suarez. >> it's taken us a day to trek to the small village of mulatos. we are up here in the mountains, and this is where colombia's war has continued, where the government has pushed the paramilitary, and they're at war. we have come to meet a group of activists. they formed almost two decades

ago, after a series of farc guerillas, working alongside the colombian military. they invited us to go into the mountains where people were displaced by a paramilitary group working in the area. >> around 50 people are going to the town of rosalee, they want to give people support there

because they've been facing lots of threats. one young boy was kidnapped and a man was killed by paramilitary. colombia has one of the largest numbers of internally displaced people in the world, nearly 6 million and it's rising. fault lines is here to find unout why. this part of colombia is isolated. it's here that the country's 50 year war is playing out. often unseen. the government is trying to bring an end to the fighting by negotiating with a rebel farq

group but community told us that officials were ignoring the real threat. officially, the colombian government mobilized paramilitary groups between 2003 and 2006. but the community told us they're still operating. >> as you can see this is completely empty. nobody is living here. the people with us are telling us that the family that was here left because the threat to paramilitary groups in this area.

and apparently a base that the paramilitaries used to use is not far away from here. they left their mark behind. >> hill dag oh wanted to show us areas where the paramilitary operate. their camp is supposed to be located high up in the mountains where they can move quickly, when they want, unseen. hill dag oh believes there is a reason they are able to move easily around here.

>> the land in this part of the country is valuable, and not just for the crops and timber here. coal has recently been discovered in the region, and the government and private companies, are expected to begin extracting it soon.

>> an hour later, we arrived at roxalie. it's almost a ghost town. a few weeks ago, paramilitaries came here threatening residents. reminding many of what they've done before. >> past killings here have left people

traumatized. emilio is reluctant to talk about what's going on here. he told us that groups of 200 men come into the village wearing uniforms and carrying machine guns. when the paramilitaries came back a few weeks ago, they told him they would chop him into pieces. so he left with his family. he returned to work the land. he says he has no other choice if he wants to feed his wife and children.

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>> as the war plays out in force in colombia, the government is trying to enact key land reform. in 2011 colombia's president signed the victim's law, with a goal of returning millions of acres of land to those that have been displaced by the conflict. but the challenges are not small. even though colombia's war began when fighting the farc, the largest displacements took place in the 1990s. >> when you started really seeing those numbers that you saw now, is really when the paramilitary started to form

into the self-defense forces of colombia. they started to complo employ a really deliberate strategy of employing

>> the colombian government officially demilitarized the paramilitaries between 2003 and 2006. as part of the government's push to develop the region. >> we have been granted access, to one of the largest companies in south america, the thousands of hectares of land. part of the u.n.'s carbon credit program.

>> carmello marquez sees it differently. it is his and his community's land. >> carmelo left this place twice. once in 2000, where paramill tris arrived, killing people in the nearby town. he returned again in 2004 but after several members of his community were assassinated, he was again forced to flee.

he wants to reclaim his land but doing so, he told us, would pit him against argos. >> congressman ivan sueda says the company as well as others in the region could not have acquired the land without knowing about the violence that took place there.

>> we asked sergio sorio, the head of the reforestation brojt the claims against them and they deny any wrongdoing. under the victims law, one week carmelo could return to his land would be to work for argos but for him that is simply too much to stomach.

>> i wonder how genuine the interest really is to have these victims returned to their lands and to have their own ideas develop. it seem to me that it pushes folks into a situation where they agree to this economic model that was forced upon them or else they don't get anything.

>> i'm ali velshi, the news has become this thing where you talk to experts about people, and al jazeera has really tried to talk to people, about their stories. we are not meant to be your first choice for entertainment. we are ment to be your first choice for the news.

>> as colombia struggles to navigate a path to peace, one of the biggest challenges are that people are still being displaced, every day. >> this is an office that helps me, amount of people that are coming here. this victim center is monteria is whoavmentd with people in overwhelmed with people in

search for help. her mother, exhausted after walking a day. >> it's people like this, that the government is supposed ton helping to get back to -- to be helping to get back to their land. but the problem is, they're trying to return in areas where the groups that displaced them still operate. and the threat of violence mansion over those who want to win.

>> rosa corvedo and her family have wanted to be alone. they fled their home in valencia the day after her brother was killed. witnesses say he was gunned down by two men. no one has been charged with his murder. evan was a community leader helping people reclaim their land. one of dozens killed in the last year.

>> rosa and her family are now afraid of what could happen if they try ogo back. try -- to go back. a three-hour drive away, the area around the olava has one of the highest land claims. the government maintained that the criminal groups threatening them have no political ideology. but the threats activists receive often by text message tell a different story. >> these are copies of the messages and the threats that they've been receiving, the members of this community. it says, this one for example,

first warning. we don't want in carmen oliva, those who call themselves the human rights defenders. if you are going oannounce something, do so, but beware. it's called the antirestitution army. >> the threats they are receiving.

>> in colombia's capitals colombia's capitol, bogota, there was a disconnect between what officials were telling us and the official line. >> enrico gonzalez is in charge, but the government refuses to acknowledge paramilitaries are carrying out the killings. insisting they're criminal bands or drug traffickers.

>> in the mountains, it seems difficult to reconcile what the government says with the accounts from civilians living in the middle of the conflict. and on our way leaving, something surprising happened.

>> they are not military. the first thing they do is identify themselves. further down the road we came across an army patrol.

is this country is so complicated, the military, paramilitary, grille la guerillas, are all dressed the same way. >> filled with doubt, we took our video to show to one of the leaders. f

. >> a week after we left the community, five teenagers were kidnapped by the agc paramilitary group who accused them of being guerillas. according to local accounts, the agc walked into the local police station, and handed them over. and then walked out. another example of why people here don't trust the colombian state, because it feels like the past is repeating itself.

>> this is al jazeera america. i'm tony harris with a look at your top stories. ukraine capitol engulfed in flames. 13 killed in fighting. dueling protest in venezuela and government arrest leashed of the opposition. and reports the white house is willing to trade prisoners at guantanamo bay for an