By Prensa Latina
Paris : France has asked Colombia to refrain from taking action against the Left radical guerrilla outfit holding high-profile hostages that may precipitate a crisis or jeopardise possible release of the captives.
The note of caution came Monday in the wake of a decision by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to lay siege to areas where the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas are believed to have been holding the hostages.
One of the hostages, in FARC captivity for over six years, is former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt of dual French-Colombian citizenship.
French Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Frederic Desagneaux said his government’s stand in the matter is well-known and unchanged that nothing should be done which could endanger the lives of the hostages.
France urges Bogota to refrain from launching military offensive against the guerrillas, Desagneaux said.
The FARC, country’s oldest and most powerful leftist armed rebel group, had been in talks with a group of facilitators headed by Bolivian President Hugo Chavez over swapping of 45 high-profile hostages with hundreds of guerrillas in Colombian jails.
The talks broke down when President Uribe last month pulled the plug saying Chavez had overstepped his terms of reference by talking directly with the Colombian Army chief. The FARC, however, released two woman hostages, running mate of Betancourt, Clara Rojas and former lawmaker Consuelo Gonzalez as a humanitarian gesture.
Shortly after Uribe’s European tour, the governments of Switzerland and France called on Bogota to allow them to act s goodwill mediators for an eventual exchange of prisoners.