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Rescue Operation Under Way... Doomed From The Start?

Hostage mission heads for Colombia jungle: France
By Sophie Louet

PARIS (Reuters) - France has sent a humanitarian mission including a doctor to try and make contact with hostage Ingrid Betancourt in the Colombian jungle, the president's office said on Wednesday.

The operation is shrouded in mystery with no indication of whether FARC guerrillas holding Betancourt, who is believed to be very ill, have given it their blessing or whether a French team is already in the region.

"A humanitarian mission by the three facilitating countries, Spain, France and Switzerland, has begun, in cooperation with the authorities concerned," President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said in a statement. It did not elaborate.

Sarkozy made a direct televised appeal on Tuesday to the Marxist FARC to release Betancourt who was "in danger of imminent death", he said.

Betancourt, 46, is a former Colombian presidential candidate and has been held hostage for six years. She has dual French-Colombian nationality.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he hoped the mission could reach her quickly.

"Everything that we could have humanly done, we have done. Now we have to wait until our special envoys, the doctor, get to the area," Kouchner told reporters after a cabinet meeting

"We are expecting a lot from this."

Colombian Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo told local radio the Colombian government was complying with a request by Sarkozy that it suspend military operations against the FARC.

"The Colombian government has given all the necessary security guarantees," Restrepo said. "We just need to pinpoint the area where we need to suspend military operations."

LAST APPEAL

French media said a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) would take part in the mission and there was speculation the team might bring Betancourt to freedom. The French government refused to give further details.

Barbara Hintermann, director of the ICRC in Colombia, said the medical mission was a French initiative that would not involve the Red Cross until the FARC asked it to participate.

"We have had no contact with the FARC about this initiative," she told reporters in Bogota.

Betancourt's son, Lorenzo Delloye Betancourt, said his mother was extremely ill and urged FARC to let her go.

"Either you release mother and the other ill hostages or you will bury her in the coming hours," he told a news conference in Paris. "This will be my last appeal. We have reached the end."

According to a support committee spokesman, Betancourt is believed to have begun a hunger strike on February 23. Her son said she had hepatitis B and an infection called leishmaniasis, which meant she needed an immediate blood transfusion.

Attempts to secure a deal to free the various FARC hostages, who also include three Americans, are deadlocked over a rebel demand that Bogota demilitarize an area in the south of Colombia for a safe haven to facilitate talks.

(Additional reporting by the Bogota bureau; writing by Crispian Balmer and Francois Murphy; Editing by Robert Woodward)

By Medellin Traveler on Apr 2, 2008, 15:43 in Friendly Talkzone.

Medellin Traveler says on Apr 2, 2008, 15:44:

Sarkozy: Mission to help FARC hostages begins

PARIS, France (CNN) -- A humanitarian mission to help hostages held by Colombian rebels began as a hostage's son said his mother needs a blood transfusion, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said Wednesday.

In a vague, one-sentence statement posted on the president's Web site, France said a mission composed of Spain, France and Switzerland had begun "in liaison with the concerned authorities."

Among the hostages is former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who has dual French citizenship. She is reported to be in failing health.

The statement from Sarkozy's office did not identify the authorities and did not say where the mission was headed or how many people were involved.

The statement came a day after Colombian President Alvaro Uribe announced Sarkozy's humanitarian mission to Colombia's jungles, intended to treat the hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Betancourt's son, Lorenzo Delloye, said in Paris on Wednesday that his mother suffers from hepatitis B and "requires a blood transfusion within hours."

The state of her health is "very grave," he said. He confirmed that she began a hunger strike February 23, the sixth anniversary of her captivity, and said her refusal to eat or take medicines her jailers offer shows "she has not lost one ounce of combativeness."

She will go to the very end," he said. "It is not surprising for the people who know my mother. She will go to the end. So now it is time that the FARC, the Colombian government and the entire international community do something."

Sarkozy made an urgent appeal for her release Tuesday.

"You who lead FARC, you now have a date with history," Sarkozy warned in a televised address with Spanish subtitles. "Don't miss it. Liberate Ingrid Betancourt and those hostages who are the weakest!"

Uribe offered few details about the mission Tuesday, saying only that he had promised the French president that Colombian military operations would be suspended in the area to help the mission's work and to guarantee its safe passage.

The Red Cross will be involved in the mission, Sarkozy said, according to Uribe.

However, Yves Heller, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Colombia, said Wednesday that it had had "yet to receive a specific request from FARC" to visit the hostages or help arrange their release.

As a neutral organization, the Red Cross, which has helped in the release of other FARC hostages, "works with all parties," said Heller.

Heller said the group would not be involved in this mission without a request from FARC.

FARC was established in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist party. It has long tried to justify hostage-taking as a military tactic in its drawn-out, complex battle with the Colombian government.

Several nations, including the United States and Colombia, classify it as a terrorist group.

The group currently holds roughly 750 hostages. In deals brokered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the rebels have freed six hostages in the past three months.

In addition to Betancourt, who is probably the best-known of the hostages, the high-profile captives include three American defense contractors whom FARC has held since 2003.

"Huevos Rancheros en Medellin, No Quiero Taco Bell." - www.medellintraveler.com

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Sam Salmon says on Apr 2, 2008, 16:10:

Few nations are as flakey as the French-this smells like the rescue plane they tried to send into the Brasilian jungle a few years ago-without telling Brasil!

Why should doctors be allowed to see here when so many others are suffering-this has a taint of idiocy about it.

Anyway chances are she'll be buried in the jungle before FARC wil let her see any outsiders-that's what kidnapping is all about.

' a la orden!'

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juancegomez says on Apr 2, 2008, 16:15:

Only time will tell if it's already doomed or not.

Yo por lo menos no sé, así no sea difícil apostar.

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Robert Jorge says on Apr 2, 2008, 17:10:

Don't be shocked if the ol' Frog Doc doesn't end up kidnapped too.

--"I believe in making the world safe for our children. But not for our children's children, because I don't think that children should be having sex." - Jack Handy

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sloopskipper says on Apr 2, 2008, 17:38:

I, for one, hope that this mission is possible, and successful, for as many hostages as possible.

I don’t really know what Ingrid’s politics were or how she can be so scorned by some members of this board.

I was absolutely stunned when one regular member stated that he hated her, and hoped that she would die so that he would spit/piss on her grave. Absolutely incredible, and unbelievable.

I am glad this guy is not my son.

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Robert Jorge says on Apr 2, 2008, 18:22:

I agree sloop. I imagine being kidnapped for years would be worse than being killed. Certainly for the family anyway. I don't know anything about Ingrid besides what I have read here. She seemed foolish, but certainly not a bad person who had a lengthy kidnapping coming.

I once stated on PBH that I would piss on Escobar's grave. Even though I still think he was a horrible person, I would like to take back what I said. Another poster set me straight at the time.

--"I believe in making the world safe for our children. But not for our children's children, because I don't think that children should be having sex." - Jack Handy

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sloopskipper says on Apr 2, 2008, 18:35:

Good.

A friend once told me "everybody is doing the best that they can", and I am not sure he was totally wrong.

The fate of all those people is so sad.

It is also pitiful that so many unhappy and hateful people are drawn to venues like this (for some sort of validation, or approval?).

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