Colombia Calls for Red
Cross Visit to Hostages
Colombian President
Alvaro Uribe on Sunday
made a televised call
for the Red Cross to be
allowed to visit
hostages held by the
country's largest rebel
group.
The call came two days
after he publicly stated
conditions for a
hoped-for hostage
release.
"We ask that the Red
Cross be allowed into
the places where the
hostages are being held
in order to stop their
condition from
deteriorating," Uribe
told television cameras
from Bogota's
international airport,
where he was boarding a
flight to Argentina.
Uribe had earlier said
he wanted the the
country's largest rebel
group, the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) to come unarmed
to a thinly populated
area around 150 square
km in size for the
hostage exchange. He
said the Catholic Church
had agreed to manage the
area, without government
assistance, should the
FARC agree.
Red Cross spokesman Yves
Heller told press
separately that the
organization was willing
to visit the hostages.
"We are in contact with
the FARC to do so, but
to date we have not
received the green
light," he said.
During the same
broadcast, Uribe called
on rebels to take
government money from a
new 100 million U.S.
dollars fund, set up to
pay
Last month the
government released
videos of kidnapped
victims including three
American military
contractors captured in
2003. One showed Ingrid
Betancourt, a 2002
Colombian presidential
candidate who also has
French citizenship and
was kidnapped by the
FARC during the
campaign.
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