Armed Conflicts, Civil Society, Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean

COLOMBIA: Freed Hostage Calls for Peace Negotiations

Constanza Vieira*

BOGOTÁ, Feb 4 2009 (IPS) - "At one point I thought we weren't going to find him," said Colombian Senator Piedad Córdoba about Alan Jara, the latest hostage to be freed as a goodwill gesture by insurgents after more than seven-and-a-half years as their captive in the jungle.

Alan Jara hugs his son at Tuesday's press conference.  Credit: Constantino Castelblanco/Gobernación del Meta

Alan Jara hugs his son at Tuesday's press conference. Credit: Constantino Castelblanco/Gobernación del Meta

When the members of the humanitarian mission arrived at the rendezvous site, "all we could see were guerrillas," as well as "large numbers of campesinos (small farmers)" who had come along to witness the handover, somewhere in the jungles of southern Colombia.

For 394 weeks made up of 2,760 days, or rather "nights", as Jara himself described them on Tuesday at a press conference in Villavicencio, the capital of the central province of Meta, he was a hostage of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The former governor of Meta province was captured in July 2001, when travelling in a United Nations vehicle with a U.N. mission, and was held since then in the jungle, pending a deal to swap him and other hostages for FARC rebels imprisoned by the government.

Shortly before 13:00 hours (18:00 GMT) on Tuesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced that Jara was free, and was on the way to Villavicencio in a helicopter loaned by the Brazilian government for the operation.

Less than half an hour later, a congratulatory message arrived from the European Union's Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, showing that the unilateral release of six hostages by the FARC, which began on Sunday and is due to finalise on Thursday, is being closely watched by the international community.


Today "all the conditions were met," and the handover was accomplished rapidly as planned, said the ICRC spokesman in Colombia, Yves Heller, who travelled with the mission led by Córdoba and coordinated by the humanitarian agency.

Heller's report indicated that the obstacles and risks to Sunday's operation, in which three police officers and one soldier were released, had not been repeated. Heavy rains, and the violation by the government of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe of the protocols guaranteeing the mission's safety, nearly upset the earlier liberations.

"We spent three hours," at the place arranged by the FARC for Jara's handover, Senator Córdoba said.

The government ceasefire in that region was due to expire two hours after the Brazilian helicopter left the area.

"May you all travel safely, may no one be killed or injured" on any side in the rescue operation, 998 feminist organisations told Córdoba at a meeting in Bogotá last week.

Since September, Córdoba has led a "Diálogo Público Epistolar" (exchange of open letters) with the FARC, initiated by the group Colombians for Peace and supported by 130,000 signatures.

In fact, Córdoba took the opportunity of Jara's release operation to send another message from the group to the FARC.

"The message was verbal, not written," said Alpher Rojas, one of the intellectuals who signed the Colombians for Peace open letters. Córdoba was to convey "that it is very important to maintain the policy of releasing hostages and to end the scourge (of kidnappings) once and for all," he said.

The FARC and the second largest guerrilla group in Colombia, the National Liberation Army (ELN), kidnap people for ransom in order to raise funds for themselves.

Colombians for Peace wants a commitment from both insurgent groups to end the practice of kidnapping, which the International Criminal Court describes as equivalent to enforced disappearance, and a war crime.

The civilian group hopes for "more releases and the opening of not just a window but a gateway to peace in this country," feminist leader Olga Amparo Sánchez, also a member of Colombians for Peace, who accompanied the eventful mission on Sunday, told IPS.

The FARC guerrillas are not defeated, Jara told the press. "I see no possible solution to the conflict other than negotiation. Therefore I would like to join Colombians for Peace, and I hope they will accept me," he said.

The FARC "have an enviable supply network" and remarkable logistics. Young people continue to join their ranks, he said.

"As long as the social causes persist," the politician said, referring to the poverty in which half the Colombian population are mired, the guerrilla warfare "will not end".

In regard to the conditions of his captivity, he said "there is no mistreatment, no humiliation or anything of that kind. They simply give us what there is" to eat, a meagre diet, which Jara described humorously.

Sometimes he was given jaguar meat, called "tiger" in the Amazon region, but he ate all manner of strange foods, anything and everything that was available.

About the chains that other freed FARC hostages have talked about, Jara said they were a "security" measure used by the guerrillas, not without regret, only when their captives are not penned behind wire fences in jungle jails, although he cannot forget "the cold feeling" around his ankles.

The former governor also said that for the past two years, two government soldiers have been shackled together with one chain because the guerrillas thought they might attempt to escape. Jara called on FARC commanders "to eliminate" the use of chains, "because it is degrading."

The guerrillas are still holding 22 officers and non-commissioned officers, whom they wish to exchange for rebels imprisoned by the government in reciprocal liberations. It is known, from other released hostages, that members of the military and police are treated more harshly than civilian hostages.

"The priority is to get them out of there," Jara said about the captured members of the security forces. As for hostages held for ransom, "We demand freedom for them all, and what must be done is to achieve an agreement," the politician said.

Last week, on the march toward his liberation, "my life was in grave danger," said Jara, confirming the warning given by Córdoba on Jan. 29.

In the jungle, "the world is upside down: the guerrillas protect us and the army shoots at us." During his seven-and-a-half years in captivity, what he was most afraid of was military rescue attempts and bombardments, he said.

Appearances would suggest that it suits President Uribe for the war in this country to be prolonged. And it would seem that "it would suit the FARC for him to remain in power," Jara said, looking back on the intense combat between the government and the rebels for the past six-and-a-half years.

According to Jara, a rebel commander told him he personally hoped the president would be reelected, because a greater level of violence would lead to "a revolutionary situation," an argument put forward by the leader of the Russian Revolution, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

Over recent weeks, Jara had to trek 150 kilometres on foot through the jungle.

"That was really tough," he told Gustavo Moncayo, the teacher and "peace walker" who in 2006 founded the present national campaign against kidnapping and who was at the press conference.

Moncayo walked from the southwestern border of Colombia to the Venezuelan capital, a distance of some 2,000 kilometres, seeking the release of his son, an army corporal, who has been in the hands of the FARC for over 11 years, waiting for a humanitarian agreement.

The third and last phase of the present hostage release operation is planned for Thursday, when Sigifredo López, a former regional legislator for the western province of Valle del Cauca, is due to return home. He was kidnapped in April 2002 along with 11 of his colleagues.

López is the only survivor left of this group of lawmakers, and his account of how the others were shot to death on Jun. 18, 2007 is keenly anticipated.

"Apparently it was 'friendly fire' (from other guerrillas)," Jara said, an explanation that agrees with the government's version of the massacre.

Two huge protest marches against the FARC and kidnappings last year, the first mass demonstrations in Colombia since the start of the civil war in the late 1940s, were "an injection of life and hope for us," because until then the country had appeared to be indifferent to the fate of the hostages, Jara said.

The former governor saluted Colombian media for promoting a campaign against kidnapping, which has "raised awareness in the country," he said.

"I do not rule out the possibility that this influence and this political about-face may have come about because of the massive repudiation of kidnapping shown by ordinary Colombians," he said.

"We have made progress. In fact, I am here because we have made progress," said this man, who watched the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York on live television in the jungle, following the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001.

During his captivity "there was no conversation" with the rebels. "I don't understand them," he said about the FARC.

*Constanza Vieira is a member of Colombians for Peace.

 
Republish | | Print |


academy of blood brad martin