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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Betancourt to deny FARC new recruits |
| 2008-12-16 |
| Former FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt says preventing the rebel group from recruiting young Colombians forms the main core of her new drive. The French-Colombian politician speaking Monday at Italy's Assisi Peace Centre announced that her newly-established human rights foundation is aimed at dissuading young Colombians from joining the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC. "I want to get my former fellow hostages out of the jungle," said Betancourt, who spent six years in the jungle in FARC's custody. "Strangely I am also thinking about my guards, aged between 13 or 14, who are younger than my children but who are also prisoners of an ideology and terror," said the former Colombian presidential candidate who was awarded by the Italian peace center. She added that her self-titled foundation would build a centre to prevent FARC recruitment in the jungle village of Calamar in southeastern Colombia. "All my guards during my captivity came from that village. I discovered they have no choice but to join the FARC," she said, adding that they are recruited by the lure of receiving a weapon and the promise of a better life. Betancourt, 46, was kidnapped in 2002 while campaigning in the Colombian Presidential race. She was rescued in July this year following a military operation by Colombian soldiers. Earlier this month Betancourt had said that she was 'totally convinced' the remaining hostages in the hands of the Colombian rebels would be freed next year. "I'm convinced that this will be the last Christmas my companions will pass in captivity. I am totally convinced that the following Christmas I will be with them, in liberty," she told a media conference in Sao Paulo. FARC, the largest insurgency group in Latin America, is holding an estimated 700 hostages, most of them ordinary Colombian citizens abducted for ransom with about 28 being held as high-profile prisoners. |
| Posted by:Fred |