Colombia: Uribe Offers To Release Rebels For Hostage's Freedom

[Bacchus39]

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A02E5D71039F93AA15750C0A96E9C8B63&scp=3&sq=farc&st=nyt


The government offered cash and reduced jail terms to leftist guerrillas in exchange for releasing the politician Ingrid Betancourt after years of captivity in jungle camps. Ms. Betancourt, left, 46, was kidnapped during her 2002 presidential campaign by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and is suffering from malnutrition and hepatitis B, according to Colombia's human rights ombudsman. President Álvaro Uribe said his government would maintain a $100 million fund to pay rewards to guerrillas who free any of the hundreds of kidnapping victims held by the FARC. On Thursday he signed a decree allowing for a mass release of guerrillas from jail if Ms. Betancourt was freed.

[struggle4progress]

1. Okay. First lemme get the chronology straight here:

beginning of March: French negotiators are supposed to meet with Reyes to negotiate the release of Betancourt. But Uribe kills Reyes first, and the French are then told it's too dangerous for them to meet Reyes

end of March (per your link): Uribe decides to try his hand at hostage release!

So, how is it working out?

COLOMBIA: French Negotiators Were to Meet Reyes the Day He Was Killed
By Kintto Lucas

QUITO, Mar 7 (IPS) - Three personal envoys of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who were in Ecuador since October 2007, were phoned Saturday Mar. 1 by Colombian Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo, who warned them not to go to a meeting with guerrilla leader Raúl Reyes because they would be in danger.

Sarkozy’s envoys in Ecuador, who were there with the consent of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, were negotiating with Reyes the release of former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who has been held hostage by the guerrillas for six years, said a French diplomatic source who wished not to be named.

The source told IPS that the three French negotiators were in a town near the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) camp that was bombed by the Colombian military in the wee hours of Saturday morning. The raid, carried out three kilometres from the Colombian border, killed Reyes -- the rebel group’s international spokesman -- and around two dozen other insurgents.

The envoys were on their way to a meeting that morning with Reyes, who was actually already dead, when they received Restrepo’s phone call warning them not to approach the contact point, for their own safety ...

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41513

WORLD BRIEFING | AMERICAS
Colombia: Uribe Offers To Release Rebels For Hostage's Freedom
By REUTERS
Published: March 29, 2008
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A02E5D71039F93AA15750C0A96E9C8B63&scp=3&sq=farc&st=nyt

[Bacchus39]

2. I don't know, I've always said the FARC should release the hostages unconditionally

what's your position?

[struggle4progress]

3. Unconditional release is the standard human rights position, since

civilians have an absolute right not be targets in armed conflict, so I find nothing objectionable in that as a policy stance

There are, however, certain practical issues

An end to civil war that has continued for decades might be obtained either by overwhelming military victory (with everything that entails) or negotiated settlement, following a sequence of good faith moves that gradually increase trust

Thus, one might have hoped earlier this year that efforts to obtain hostage releases could eventually be boot-strapped into more general settlement

But, despite the substantial human benefits, there are always constituencies opposing settlement, because attitudes harden all sides -- as was seen (say) in Northern Ireland and as is seen in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

To give just one example: such hardening of attitude is clearly evident on the government side when the government routinely denounces its critics as FARC sympathizers

Unfortunately, by killing Reyes, Uribe has further hardened attitudes on all sides: if the FARC believe that efforts to release hostages will be met with military force, they have no motive to release