By IANS
Bogota : The international community Friday hailed the release of two women hostages held by Colombia’s largest and oldest leftist insurgency group and urged the rebels to release the rest of the captives.
“We welcome the release of the hostages and continue to call on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to release all the hostages in their captivity, including the three Americans,” Spain’s EFE news agency quoted a US State Department official as saying Thursday.
After their release, Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez, both former Colombian politicians, called for continued efforts to free the hundreds of others held by the FARC, while the international community saw the release as a sign that a more comprehensive hostage liberation effort could be possible.
One-time vice presidential candidate Rojas and former congresswoman Gonzalez were among the 45 high-value hostages the FARC have been trying to exchange for hundreds of jailed guerrillas.
Among the hostages proposed to be swapped for jailed guerrillas are former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who holds dual French-Colombian citizenship, US military contractors Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes. They have been in FARC captivity since February 2003.
Rojas was Betancourt’s running mate in the 2002 Colombian presidential race.
“France is deeply overjoyed,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said, vowing to redouble efforts to secure the release of Betancourt.
The release of the two shows “that things are moving, that the mobilisations have produced their first results,” Sarkozy told the media, referring to the mediation efforts of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the architect of Thursday’s operation.
From Brussels, the European Commission expressed hope that the release of Rojas and Gonzalez de Perdomo is a sign that all the remaining hostages “will be freed soon”.
Spain has applauded all those who played a role in freeing the women, mainly Chavez.
Amnesty International welcomed the release of Rojas and Gonzalez de Perdomo and said hostage taking is a “flagrant violation of international humanitarian norms, which could constitute a war crime”.
“The FARC and National Liberation Army (the second largest Colombian guerrilla group) should immediately and unconditionally free all the civilians they’re holding as hostages,” Amnesty said in a statement in London.
Meanwhile, Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos said he hopes the FARC now “will free the other 700 hostages” it has in its possession.
Also celebrating the release of Rojas and Gonzalez de Perdomo were their relatives and those of other hostages – including Betancourt’s family, who said they received the news with joy and hope.
“It’s a part of Ingrid who was released today,” the politician’s ex-husband, former French diplomat Fabrice Delloye, said referring to the freedom of Clara Rojas. He stressed that now “we have to work to the best of our abilities so that the other hostages return”.