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REPORTS: COLOMBIA |
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Hostage
Release Falls Through, Peace Again
Postponed
By Yadira Ferrer*
BOGOTA, (IPS) - The
leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC) are proposing to
release hostages in order to gain
international support and thus
overcome President Alvaro Uribe's
resistance to a peace dialogue, say
observers of the country's decades-old
civil war.
Such is the interpretation of a
complicated episode in which the FARC
guerrillas, according to news and
diplomatic reports -- though denied by
the government --, were on the verge
of releasing former presidential
candidate Ingrid Betancourt who the
rebels kidnapped on Feb. 23, 2002.
Intrigue abounds, as Betancourt holds
Colombian-French dual citizenship, and
the French government became involved
with trying to obtain her release.
Dominique de Villepin, France's
foreign minister, said Saturday that,
at the request of Betancourt's family,
a military aircraft had been sent to
the northern Brazilian city of Manaos
to receive her.
The French ministry assured that the
governments of Brazil and Colombia
were both aware of what was involved
in this ”humanitarian operation”,
but Brasilia and Bogotá deny any
knowledge of it.
Otty Patiño, of the Colombian
non-governmental Observatory for
Peace, says the FARC are using the
possibility of turning over the people
they hold hostage as a tool to achieve
a humanitarian agreement and lay the
groundwork for peace talks with the
Uribe government.
France has offered to receive the
guerrillas that the Colombian
government would release in a
potential humanitarian exchange of
guerrilla prisoners for kidnap
victims.
According to Betancourt's husband,
Juan Lecompte, the FARC -- Colombia's
largest and oldest guerrilla group in
the ongoing armed conflict -- agreed
to release the former presidential
candidate, but the agreement fell
through ”because the Brazilian press
leaked the news and said it was an
illegal operation, and that triggered
a scandal.”
For more than a week, the Brazilian,
Colombian and French media have been
covering the issue, but with
contradictory stories. The first came
out in the Brazilian magazine Carta
Capital, which reported the presence
of the French military aircraft in
Manaos from Jul. 9 to 13.
Arriving on that plane were 11
passengers with diplomatic passports
and five crew members, and their
mission was to transport Betancourt to
Paris for medical treatment, said the
publication.
The Brazilian newspaper Extra reported
Friday that Betancourt's release had
been negotiated with the FARC for a
cash payment and medical treatment for
one of the guerrilla leaders, Raul
Reyes, whose health is said to be
failing. But Betancourt's family
refuted this version of the facts.
”There had to have been some kind of
contact between the rebels and the
French government” for the latter to
decide to send an airplane, Luis
Valencia, a political science
professor in Bogotá, said in a
conversation with IPS.
It looks as if the FARC are seeking
international spaces in which to push
for peace talks, he added, pointing
out that two weeks ago the guerrillas
had sent a letter to the United
Nations -- whose mediation they had
always rejected in the past -- to urge
the global forum to listen to their
side of the Colombian conflict.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated
that the letter was a ”positive”
step.
Valencia said he had information from
a source close to the FARC that the
guerrillas are attempting to use
contacts abroad to break down the
barriers ”that the Uribe government
has erected for peace negotiations.”
But Uribe has already sent signals
that he is not interested in
negotiating with the FARC. ”His
attention is focused on the talks with
the right-wing paramilitary United
Self-Defence of Colombia,” said the
political scientist.
Jairo Clopatosftky, chairman of the
Colombian Senate's foreign relations
committee, told IPS that there were
”direct conversations between
officials from the French government
and the High Commissioner for Peace”
Luis Restrepo, of Colombia, for
Betancourt's release, with an eye to a
future peace process and the
possibility that France would receive
the demobilised FARC guerrillas.
It would be interesting to know ”why
the case of Ingrid (Betancourt) is
given priority and the more than 3,500
Colombians who are being held (by
armed groups) go ignored,” commented
Clopatosftky, of the Independent Civic
Movement and a supporter of Uribe's
presidential bid last year.
A diplomatic source who requested
anonymity told IPS in Rio de Janeiro
that Brazil's only official initiative
in this case was to invite France's
ambassador in Brasilia, Alain Rouquié
to the Foreign Ministry last week to
provide ”clarifications” about the
presence of the military aircraft.
According to the Colombian daily El
Tiempo, Brazilian Foreign Minister
Celso Amorin said in Bogotá on Friday
that his government ”was never
involved in any gesture” for the
release of Betancourt. Colombia's
Vice-President Francisco Santos said
the executive branch ”knew
nothing” about the details of the
matter.
Santos said he preferred not to
comment because ”human suffering and
diplomatic relations” were at stake.
He said he had requested official
explanations related to the case.
The vice-president stressed, ”All
efforts made by any country or any
citizen” in this area should seek
the release of all people being held
by armed groups in Colombia.
The Colombian weekly El Espectador
said Sunday that the initial link in
the country for the failed attempt to
attain Betancourt's release was a
peasant farmer who was a FARC contact,
but the publication did not release
the name for safety reasons.
The contact reportedly travelled to
Bogotá to meet with a Catholic
priest, who in turn took him to
high-level officials, who found the
source to be credible. President Uribe
himself is said to have told
Betancourt's family to head to the
site where she would be handed over.
But Iván Rojas, brother of Clara
Rojas -- Betancourt's running mate who
was kidnapped alongside the
presidential candidate last year --
told national Caracol radio Monday
that his family had not received any
information that Betancourt's release
was in the works.
The latest news Rojas has of his
sister came at the end of 2002, when
the FARC released a video to prove
that she and Betancourt were still
alive.
The Association of Families of
Kidnapped Military and Police Agents
asked the Uribe government in May to
facilitate an agreement for a
humanitarian exchange of kidnap
victims for FARC prisoners, and to end
all military attempts to rescue the
hostages. A rescue operation intended
to free the kidnapped governor of
Antioquia department, Guillermo
Gaviria, ended with his death.
Valencia believes the FARC had decided
to release Gaviria in order to pave
the way for closer contacts with the
Uribe government, but the failed
rescue attempt, in which a former
minister and eight kidnapped soldiers
also died, undermined any such
possibility.
The FARC are currently holding
hundreds of people for ransom, and for
apparently political aims kidnapped
Betancourt and Rojas, as well as 11
local lawmakers from Valle, in western
Colombia, a former governor, around 60
police and soldiers and a former
minister.
The guerrillas reportedly want to swap
their hostages for approximately 400
guerrillas held in Colombian prisons.
* With reporting from Mario Osava
(Brazil).
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