The Colombian government will give a reward of 1.4 million U.S. dollars to four rebel members who betrayed their group and killed one of their leaders, Colombian Vice Defense Minister Sergio Jaramillo said on Monday.

Jaramillo said the money will be given to Pablo Montoya and three of his colleagues in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's biggest rebel group.
The four killed Manuel Munoz, alias Ivan Rios, one of the seven main FARC leaders, on March 4 and handed over a computer of Munoz to the army.
They will be also be rewarded for offering information that will be useful to dismantling the FARC group and for opening a legal process against FARC leaders, Jaramillo said.
The money represents some 48.2 percent of the total rewards of 2.9 million dollars promised by the government for Munoz's head, and Jaramillo said the rest of the reward will be paid to relatives of those who also participated in combat against Munoz but lost their lives.
Noting that the promised rewards have encouraged FARC members to desert and betray their leaders, the vice minister said the government will continue with this policy.
Under Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's military onslaught, FARC forces have been almost halved to 8,000, according to government estimates.
The group acknowledged last month that its top leader and co-founder Manuel ""Sureshot"" Marulanda had died of a heart attack.
The FARC's second-in-command Raul Reyes was killed by the Colombian army in a cross-border attack on a rebel camp on March 1.
A Colombian FARC rebel has offered to release French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt and other guerrilla captives in exchange for protection from extradition, President Alvaro Uribe said on Friday, Reuters reported.
""We sent a note to the guerrilla who offered to hand over Ingrid Betancourt and other kidnap victims,"" he said. ""The DAS (Colombia's intelligence agency) director send it with my authorization, saying there will be no extradition if this goes through. We hope this is true.""
Betancourt, a former presidential candidate, was kidnapped more than five years ago while campaigning. She is the FARC hostage with the highest profile. Others include three U.S. defense contractors kidnapped in 2003.
Uribe's announcement may signal a bid by FARC members to break away and surrender with hostages as the rebels struggle to remain united and come under more pressure from the military.
Betancourt was last seen in a rebel video at the end of last year looking gaunt and despondent in a jungle camp. She is sick and has been chained up after repeated escape bids, say former hostages recently freed by the rebels.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made freeing Betancourt a foreign policy priority for his government.
Two top guerrilla commanders have been extradited to the United States. The FARC wants them included in any deal to swap hostages for imprisoned rebel fighters.
The FARC, now engaged in Colombia's cocaine trade, want Uribe to pull troops back from an area the size of New York City to broker any hostage exchange. But he has refused and offers a smaller safe haven under international observation.
(Source: Xinhua)