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Farc video shows Colombian political hostages
Martin Hodgson in Bogota
Thursday July 25, 2002
The Guardian
"Five months after kidnapping the presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) have released a videotape in which she accuses the government of leaving the rebels' hostages to rot in the jungle.
Farc seized Ms Betancourt and her campaign manager, Clara Rojas, on February 23 as they headed into rebel territory after the collapse of three years' peace talks ended the zone's status as a safe area.
The video appeared to have been made on May 15, two weeks before the presidential election which gave the hardliner Alvaro Uribe a landslide victory.
Ms Betancourt says: »It's been a tremendously lonely 82 days.«
Ms Rojas, who was named as Ms Betancourt's running mate after the kidnapping, looks pale and thin and remains silent throughout.
Ms Betancourt says she still supports peace talks with her captors and condemns the government for failing to find a political solution to nearly 40 years of civil war."
more under:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/colombia/story/0,11502,762595,00.html
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