Swiss Foreign Minister
To Visit Colombia Amid
Mediator Row
Swiss Foreign Minister
Micheline Calmy-Rey will
visit Bogota on Aug. 11
to strengthen dialogue
with Colombia, Swiss
Ambassador to Colombia
Thomas Kupfer said
Friday.
"For a long time, there
has not been a visit
from a high-level Swiss
official to Colombia and
we are happy to have
this friendly dialogue
of positive content,"
Kupfer told the press.
Switzerland announced
the visit after
Colombian Prosecutor's
Office requested a probe
on Jean-Pierre Gontard,
who was a Swiss envoy to
mediate hostage release
by the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC).
Switzerland, which was
part of international
mediating efforts in
dealing with the FARC
that also included Spain
and France, said Gontard
was not an official
representative of the
Swiss government.
However, Calmy-Rey urged
attacks on Gontard to be
stopped.
According to e-mails
obtained from the
rebels, Gontard used
offensive words when
talking about Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe.
Analysts say it is only
a strategy to win the
rebels' trust.
Gontard was also accused
of giving 500,000 U.S.
dollars to the FARC in
Costa Rica.
The Swiss government
said that two employees
from drug maker Novartis
were freed following
Gontard's intervention
in 2001, but he "was
never the carrier of the
money" who enabled the
employees' release.
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