COLOMBIA:
Hostages and Peace as
Pawns
By Constanza Vieira
BOGOTA (IPS) - This
time, the Colombian
government has not
complained that they do
not know the coordinates
of the place where four
politicians held as
hostages by the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC)
are to be released.
"If there is a military
operation it will
seriously endanger the
hostages," said French
Foreign Minister Bernard
Kouchner on Thursday,
after a meeting with
Colombian President
Álvaro Uribe.
At nightfall, Bogotá
announced that they had
pinpointed the location
of the second group of
hostages to be
unilaterally released by
the FARC.
Defence Minister Juan
Manuel Santos claims the
army knows that they are
close to the place where
politicians Consuelo
González and Clara Rojas
were freed on Jan. 10,
near the small town of
Tomachipán, in the
southern province of
Guaviare.
The hostages concerned
are lawmakers Gloria
Polanco, Luis Eladio
Pérez, Orlando Beltrán,
and possibly Jorge
Eduardo Gechem.
The first three were
taken hostage in
different incidents in
2001, and Gechem was
kidnapped on Feb. 20,
2002.
According to Santos,
Gechem is 15 kilometres
away from the other
three, and is seriously
ill.
The announcement by the
government is apparently
intended to show that it
has gained ground in the
war against the
insurgents, which it is
fighting with support
and funding from the
United States, under
Plan Colombia.
Santos is a shareholder
in the newspaper El
Tiempo, which confirmed
FARC reports that
"intense military
operations" are taking
place in Guaviare,
including the use of
"sophisticated U.S.
fighter planes."
By intercepting radio
communications during
operations, the FARC
know that instructions
to Colombian Air Force
planes are given in
English, a source from
the guerrilla command
told IPS in 2005.
The Colombian government
promised it will let the
hostage release proceed
without interference,
but there are fears
about the reaction of
the guerrilla unit
escorting the hostages
should the army attack.
So far, the FARC have
carried out their threat
of executing hostages if
government forces track
them down.
The Marxist rural
movement which took up
arms in 1964 wants to
exchange a group of
between 40 and 45
hostages for between 400
and 500 imprisoned
guerrillas, including
two who were extradited
to the United States by
Uribe.
The FARC are also
holding three U.S.
contractors who worked
for Plan Colombia and
were captured in
February 2003.
According to the defence
minister, the government
"has known for some
time" where the four
hostages are.
But he released his
bombshell hours after
Uribe rejected out of
hand Kouchner’s proposal
to include Venezuela,
whose President Hugo
Chávez is his regional
arch-rival, in the group
of countries working to
broker a humanitarian
agreement.
Chávez became involved
in the hostage drama in
early August on the
initiative of Colombian
opposition Senator
Piedad Córdoba, of the
Liberal Party.
A few days later, Uribe
officially accepted
their mediation, but
terminated it abruptly
on Nov. 21, sparking a
serious crisis between
Colombia and Venezuela.
Uribe has constantly
intervened in
controversial ways on
the three occasions on
which Chávez and Córdoba
achieved substantial
progress.
In late November,
messengers carrying
documents showing that
hostages were still
alive, as demanded by
France and Democratic
members of the U.S.
Congress, were arrested
in Bogotá by order of
the government. The two
female messengers are in
the process of being
extradited to the United
States.
The release of Rojas and
González, scheduled for
Dec. 31, in the presence
of observers from eight
countries led by former
Argentine President
Néstor Kirchner, was
delayed for 10 days
because the army was
bombing the area.
It is now known that
months before the
hostage release
operation, Uribe already
knew that Rojas’ son,
Emmanuel, was not in the
hands of the guerrillas
who were promising to
free him, but only at
the last minute did he
announce that the child
was in a state
institution for
abandoned or abused
children.
The Colombian president
is determined to take
military action, and
hopes to force the FARC
to negotiate on the
government’s terms,
which are that
guerrillas freed in the
exchange must become
non-combatants.
On his return from a
visit to Europe in
January, Uribe ordered
the army to locate
guerrilla camps where
the hostages are being
held, without attacking
them, in order to secure
their unconditional
release through
international mediation
later on.
The government’s hope is
that, faced with such a
show of strength, the
FARC will stop killing
the hostages when they
are surrounded by the
army.
But Uribe’s three
interventions to date
are not necessarily
proof of superior
military force. They
were carried out at
risky times, during
operations that the
guerrillas had announced
in advance.
Kouchner said that when
he talked to the
Colombian president
about military measures
in cases where hostages
are involved, he
recommended that
President Uribe "hold
himself back, and he
understood it very
well."
In the evening, the
government’s Peace
Commissioner, Luis
Carlos Restrepo, wrote
on his web site that
"the unthinkable has
happened with the FARC."
He says they are
releasing hostages
unilaterally "in order
to bolster President
Chávez’s image as a key
player in the
humanitarian releases."
According to Restrepo,
the FARC are trying to
gather "a group of
countries" that support
Chávez, in order "to
exert pressure on
President Uribe to
accept (the Venezuelan
leader’s) mediation once
again."
The French foreign
minister was rewarded by
nothing but rejection
from Uribe when he
suggested creating a
broad group of countries
that could bring the two
sides closer to an
agreement. Peace
negotiations would
become possible after
all the FARC’s civilian
hostages are
unilaterally released.
"The idea of the group
(of observer countries)
has still not been
accepted, neither in its
geometry nor in its
composition," said
Kouchner. "We are
continuing to work
towards it."
The countries involved
might include Brazil,
France, Switzerland,
Cuba and Argentina.
Uribe turned down
participation by
Venezuela, although the
other countries, and the
hostage’s families as
well, want it to be
included, because of the
renown Chávez has earned
as a mediator with the
guerrillas.
"President Chávez has
played a role in the
first releases. But
France cannot put
pressure on Colombia. As
a friendly country, it
can, however, make
proposals, and be very
persistent on behalf of
the hostages, and in the
interests of peace,"
Kouchner said. Restrepo
casts aspersions on the
credibility of press
reports based on FARC
sources, which say the
insurgents are not
interested in mediation
by the Catholic Church,
or Spain, an ally of the
Uribe administration.
The high commissioner
repeated an offer made
by Uribe in December,
which was rejected by
the FARC: demarcating an
uninhabited area of 150
square kilometres, from
which even the army
would withdraw, where
"delegates of the
parties" accompanied by
international observers
would meet "with the
sole purpose of
dialogue." |
