By SPA
Washington : Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Friday demanded that Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels release sick hostages, including French-Colombian captive Ingrid Betancourt.
“We call for the immediate, unilateral release of hostages whose health is affected, who are sick,” Uribe told reporters in Bogota. “We are hoping for a way to free those who are ill, whose health is at risk, where the government can contribute.”
Details of Betancourt’s grave condition after six years in captivity were revealed this week by former hostages released in a deal brokered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
The condition of Colombia’s hostages is increasingly becoming an international concern, with France, Switzerland, and Spain engaged in efforts to mediate a deal between Uribe and the FARC to exchange rebel captives for jailed guerrillas.
The FARC has freed six hostages this year to Chavez, and former captives say Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate, is very sick with liver problems and depression.
“I am tired of suffering, of carrying it within me every day, of lying to myself and of seeing that every day is the same hell as the one before,” Betancourt wrote in a letter published by a Spanish television network.