|
French aid mission to leave for Colombia within 48 hours
2008-04-02
A French medical mission will leave for Colombia within 48 hours to treat the hostage Ingrid Betancourt, after Bogota agreed to suspend military operations against her rebel captors, an official said Wednesday. "The mission has not yet left. It will leave today or tomorrow," said an official close to the operation, announced Tuesday by President Nicolas Sarkozy following telephone talks with his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe. French Foreign Bernard Kouchner said the team, which includes a doctor, would leave "as soon as possible" to treat the former Colombian presidential candidate, who also has French citizenship. "We have high hopes. We have done all we humanly could, and now we need to wait for our envoys, the doctor, to reach the field." Colombia has agreed to suspend military operations in the southeast of the country to allow the deployment of the French mission. A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva said it was "prepared to play the part of neutral intermediary" to help the French team gain access to Betancourt. Captured in February 2002 by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) while campaigning for the presidency, Betancourt is thought to be gravely ill after six years in captivity. She is believed to be suffering from hepatitis B and leishmania, a skin disease caused by insect bites. Videos seized from the rebels in November showed her looking gaunt and frail. Sarkozy on Tuesday pleaded with FARC leader Manuel Marulanda to release Betancourt, who has become a cause celebre in France due to high-profile campaigning by her family and friends. France last weekend put a plane and a medical team on standby in case she is freed. Betancourt is among 39 high-profile hostages, including three US defence contractors, whom the FARC wants to exchange for 500 rebels held in prison. The Marxist guerrilla movement, which has been fighting the Colombian government for more than 40 years, is believed to be holding more than 700 people hostage in the jungles of the Latin American state.
| 
