A year later, Ingrid Betancourt asks that world remember hostages

Jul 2, 2009, 20:55 GMT

Bogota - Ingrid Bentancourt, the former Colombian presidential candidate who was rescued from leftist rebels exactly a year ago, asked Thursday that the world not forget the people who remain in captivity in the South American nation.

Betancourt was kidnapped by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in February 2002 and spent over six years in captivity before being rescued on July 2, 2008 by Operation Jaque, an undercover Colombia Army operation.

Betancourt was freed along with three US defence contractors and 11 Colombian military and police officers, when the military tricked the rebels into handing over the rebels for a pretend transfer within the jungle in southern Colombia.

The former presidential candidate - who holds dual French- Colombian citizenship and was the most high-profile hostage held by FARC - said she is setting up a foundation to support former hostages.

Betancourt told Colombian radio station Caracol that she, like most observers, has noticed since her rescue a drop in interest in the plight of current hostages - 22 military and police officers, as well as hundreds of non-politically relevant prisoners held for ransom by the rebels - both in the South American country and abroad.

'For me it is very painful to think that our liberation may serve as a justification to forget them, or to have nothing happen, to turn the page,' she said.

Betancourt said she would like to 'do something' and that for now the only thing she can think of is speaking so that the world is reminded of what is happening in Colombia.

'I suffer greatly with my comrades' situation and we have to be careful that in anything we do we are not turned into instruments of the guerrilla. The guerrilla has turned kidnapping into its business card, and it gets publicity through the infamy of kidnapping,' she said.

Betancourt recalled that she is working on a book that should be on sale in 2010. However, she noted that she has found it painful to remember the 'tortures and humiliations' she suffered in the jungle.

   FARC, who have been fighting the state for more than 45 years, largely finance themselves with proceeds from drug trafficking and are independent of popular support.

   The Marxist rebels have been pushed back by determined action under conservative President Alvaro Uribe, but have so far rejected negotiations and refused to renounce violence.