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Tuesday 28 October 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
Colombia To Reward
Former Rebel
BOGOTA - Colombian
government announced on
Monday that it will
reward about 500,000
U.S. dollars to a
guerilla who helped a
former congressman
escape from the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Colombian Defense
Minister Juan Manuel
Santos said that the
young guerilla "Isaza",
who is not charged with
crimes against humanity,
could receive an amnesty
and use his money to go
to France as refugee.
Isaza and the former
congressman Oscar Tulio
Lizcano, who has been
kept hostage for more
than eight years, fled a
FARC's camp in western
jungles and trudged for
three days before
reaching a military base
on Sunday.
Santos said the
Colombian government was
estimating the amount of
the reward, and it would
be "around 1 billion
Colombian pesos (about
500,000 U.S. dollars)."
Santos said that the
prosecutor was studying
the possibility of
giving Isaza a
conditional freedom, and
Isaza had accepted the
offer of asylum in
France with his partner.
"So we think he will
leave the country in a
few days," Santos said.
After the escape of
Lizcano, FARC still
holds two other
politicians and some 26
military chiefs as
"exchangeable" hostages.
According to official
statistics, there are
thousands of hostages
held by the rebels and
criminal groups of
Colombia. |
