Colombia shows videos of 10 hostages held more than decade by rebels

Sep 8, 2009, 4:52 GMT

   Bogota - A video showing 10 police officers and soldiers alive more than a decade after they were captured by leftist rebels was released by the Colombian government.

   The men in the videos shown Monday had padlocked chains around their necks as they spoke to their families and thanked journalists and activists who broadcast messages to them via radio reports during their captivity at the hands of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

   Many of the six police officers and four soldiers were bearded and were shown speaking in front of a camouflage draping.

   The videos were seized from a courier who was taken into custody at the weekend by soldiers in central Colombia, authorities said Monday.

   They showed police officers Cesar Lazo, Jorge Trujillo, Carlos Duarte, Libardo Forero, Jorge Romero and Wilson Rojas as well as soldiers Arturo Arcia, Alfonso Beltran, Alfredo Moreno and Robinson Salcedo.

   The proof-of-life videos were the second to be released in a week after previous tapes showed eight other hostages. All the captives shown on the tapes belong to a group of 23 security personnel who FARC is hoping to exchange for about 500 rebels incarcerated by the government. Such a prisoner exchange has not preceded because of conditions set by both sides.

   FARC have been fighting the state for more than 45 years, and an end to the conflict is not in sight. FARC has been pushed back in the seven years since conservative President Alvaro Uribe took office but has so far rejected negotiations and refused to renounce violence.