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Colombia reaches out to FARC rebels in bid to free hostage

Colombia reaches out to FARC rebels in bid to free hostage
Fri Mar 28, 88:218:20AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080328/wl_afp/colombiafrancerebelshostag...

BOGOTA (AFP) - Colombia's government has offered to expedite the release of leftist rebels from its prisons if the guerrilla group immediately frees ailing French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt.

Bogota is prepared to drop several of the conditions it had placed on a long-sought prisoner swap, in a bid to jump-start the deal and secure freedom for Betancourt and other hostages in poor health, Colombian Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo said.

"It's enough that Ingrid Betancourt be immediately released for us to consider the humanitarian deal is on, enabling us to conditionally suspend the sentences of members of the rebel group," Restrepo said late Thursday.

Asked how many rebels would be freed, Restrepo said Bogota was not placing a limit on the number and had "reduced to a minimum" its conditions for the swap.

"There is no limit as to the crime committed, or the type of sentence received," he told reporters at the presidential palace here.

Earlier Thursday, Colombia's ombudsman renewed concerns over Betancourt's health, saying her rebel captors took her to medical facilities in southeastern Colombia late last month.

"The information that we have, at least until February, is that the state of her health is very delicate, and her physical and health conditions have been deteriorating," said Volmar Perez, an independent official in charge of relations between the government and the population.

The 46-year-old former presidential candidate kidnapped in February 2002 is suffering from hepatitis B and leishmania, a skin disease caused by insect bites, Perez said, citing sources he declined to identify.

"We did not give those rumors great credibility. Nothing has been corroborated," Restrepo said of the reports, adding that President Alvaro Uribe "remains concerned" for Betancourt's health.

She is among 39 high-profile hostages, including three American defense contractors, whom the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) want to exchange for 500 rebels held in prison, including two held in US prisons.

Direct talks to negotiate the prisoner swap have never gotten off the ground, although the rebels unilaterally released six hostages to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez earlier this year.

Uribe has indicated that he favors such an exchange, but has firmly rejected rebel demands that he demilitarize two towns to conduct the swap.

Chavez Tuesday said he had had no news of Betancourt since the death of FARC's number two commander Raul Reyes in a controversial Colombian air raid on a rebel camp in Ecuador on March 1.

"I have had no news of Ingrid," Chavez said at a meeting with foreign correspondents in Caracas. "We have lost all contacts, we know nothing. I hope that we can re-establish contacts," he said.

Before Reyes' death there was "a degree of probability" that Betancourt would be set free. "But later that probability dropped. It is not zero, and it is not improbable, but the probability has dropped," he said.

The Marxist FARC have been fighting the Colombian government for more than 40 years.

The group, which finances its activities in part by involvement in the illegal drug trade, is believed to be holding more than 700 people hostage.

By sloopskipper on Mar 28, 2008, 09:27 in Politics & the war.

sloopskipper says on Mar 28, 2008, 09:28:

bump

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Mr. Hollywood says on Mar 28, 2008, 09:54:

Does anyone have a credible list of ALL the hostages?

This "high profile hostage" thing is really beginning to piss me off. There's absolutely no moral reason that Ingrid or the Americans are any more important than the other hundreds of FARC victims. I think we should start a movement to demand that any hostage exchange be for ALL the victims, not just a select few with social influence.

0 funny, 0 helpful.