FARC releases two more hostages

Feb 17, 2011, 4:12 GMT

Bogota - Left-wing Colombian rebels released another two hostages Wednesday in a 'gesture of goodwill,' bringing to six the total of kidnapping victims set free over the past week.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) handed over police major Guillermo Solorzano, kidnapped in 2007, and officer Salin Sanmiguel, seized a year later, to a humanitarian commission at an undisclosed location in the South American jungle, according to the International Red Cross.

The release of the two was delayed two days after the promised date of handover.

The move is aimed at paving the way for talks to end more than four decades of conflict between the rebels and the Colombian government. The government of President Manuel Santos insists that FARC meet preconditions before talks, including an end to all attacks and and release of all hostages.

FARC is still holding 15 uniformed security officials and an unknown number of civilians.

The decades-long civil conflict between FARC and the government began in 1964 and has claimed an estimated 200,000 lives. Millions of people have been displaced from rural areas by the conflict and fled to the suburban slums of large cities. The war is inextricably tied up with the illegal drug trade, which finances the rebels and paramilitaries.

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