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.