Americas News
Colombian TV shows Dutch woman believed to be held by FARC
Sep 8, 2007, 9:42 GMT
Amsterdam - Colombian television broadcast late Friday video footage of Dutch national Tanja Nijmeijer, who voluntarily joined the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2002, but is believed to be held by the guerrilla's against her will, Dutch news agency ANP Saturday.
The video footage appears to have been made shortly after Nijmeijer's mother visited her daughter in Colombia in 2005.
'I know that this must be a difficult time for my mother and father,' Tanja, 29, says on the footage. Elsewhere Nijmeijer is shown training with FARC guerrillas.
The army found the video footage on Nijmeijer's laptop which they seized following their raid of the FARC camp, more than six weeks ago.
It is the second time Colombian authorities have provided local media with Nijmeijer's personal material. The Colombian daily El Tiempo published sections of Nijmeijer's diary, in which she criticizes FARC and its leadership.
On Thursday, Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Fernando Araújo Perdomo told Dutch reporters in an interview in Brussels that Nijmeijer's life was in danger following the release of her diary, containing criticism of FARC.
'These terrorists execute and kill anyone who wants to desert,' Perdomo said, 'That is why Tanja Nijmeijer's life is in serious danger now.'
Perdomo was also abducted and held hostage by FARC. He managed to escape after six years, on New Year's Eve 2006.
The published sections of Nijmeijer's diary indicate that she initially joined FARC voluntarily, but was then held against her will.
The diary was found by the Colombian army when it raided a guerrilla camp six weeks ago. Additional sections of the diary published Wednesday in Bogota indicate that more European nationals, including Norwegians, had voluntarily joined FARC.
Established in the 1960s as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, FARC is Latin America's oldest, largest, and best- equipped Marxist insurgency.
FARC has 12,000 to 18,000 members, some 30 per cent of whom are recruits under 18 years of age.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
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En Europa se encuentran la mayor parte de los complices del terror de mi Colombia. mutilados, secuestrados son estos mas de 3000 quienes se encuentran por mas de 4 años en cautiverio, destrucción del Amazonas. financian a las farc con el consumo de la coca y el apoyo a su falso ideal. Como queremos llegar a la paz en Colombia si estos terroristas encuentra eco en Europa, en especial en sus jóvenes. Les convence tener una aventura al estilo Robin Hood y en realidad solo participan en narcotrafico conllevando con esta actividad el asesinato de civiles en especial niños.
It's a shame that European countries allow the free advertising of this guerrilla group - when they are a known 'narco-terrorist' enterprise. Us Colombians do not support this group as a majority. STOP the support of assasins such as FARC.
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Tanjia NirmeiersSep 28th, 2007 - 13:07:23
You forget to mention that on the 80's Farc's main financing came from 'securing' cocaine plantations and processing laboratories but suddenly, when Pablo Escobar died on the early 90's they had to fin another income sources so they kidnapped more than 5.000 people (almost half of them woman and children as young as 2 years) solely to get money from their relatives. The other economic decision they made was to take over all the drug business (plantations, laboratories, transport and distribution in Europe).
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