Colombian Rebels to Free U.S., British Journalists

reuters.com Wed January 29, 2003 12:26 AM ET By Ibon Villelabeitia

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Marxist rebels said on Tuesday they would release within the next two days a British reporter and a U.S. photographer they kidnapped last week in a war-torn stretch of eastern Colombia.

"They will be released in the next few days, in one or two days," Antonio Garcia, a senior commander of the Cuban-inspired National Liberation Army, or ELN, told RCN radio.

British reporter Ruth Morris and U.S. photographer Scott Dalton were abducted while traveling on a freelance assignment for the Los Angeles Times along a rural road on Jan. 21 in the violent province of Arauca, where U.S. Special Forces are training local troops in counterinsurgency techniques.

Morris and Dalton, both experienced hands in Colombia, were stopped at an ELN roadblock, hooded and taken to a secret guerrilla camp, said their driver, who was later released.

Garcia gave no details of the planned release but said the ELN was coordinating with the Los Angeles Times.

Colombia is ravaged by a four-decades-old war that pits leftist rebels against right-wing militias and the U.S.-backed military. It is one of the world's most dangerous places for reporters. Eight Colombian journalists were killed last year.

"WE HOPE TO SEE OUR FAMILIES SOON" In a crackling message broadcast over an ELN clandestine radio station, Morris said the two journalists were fine and in good health, but "very worried" about their relatives.

"I want my family to know that we are fine and in good health, and we hope to see them soon," Morris said in an interview with a man who identified himself as a member of the ELN's Domingo Lain unit, which operates in Arauca.

Dalton's voice was not heard in the message, recorded on Monday and released Tuesday.

The man interviewing Morris said the pair's release would take place "as soon as security conditions permit it."

Garcia, who spoke from an undisclosed location, said Morris was given an opportunity to broadcast a birthday greeting to her father over the ELN radio station.

The Los Angeles Times declined to comment.

Another radio message broadcast last week by the Domingo Lain unit said the release of Morris and Dalton depended on undefined "political and military conditions."

Military intelligence sources have pointed to infighting between the Domingo Lain unit and the ELN's central command. But Garcia, considered the ELN's top military commander and its No. 2 man, said the decision was definitive.

"There is a critical combat situation in the area but the will and the decision of the ELN is to release them in the coming days," he said, adding he hoped the pair's "contact" with the ELN contributes to the understanding of the conflict from the rebel's point of view.

FARC FREE TV CREW News of the radio broadcast came as rebels of the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as "FARC," on Tuesday released unharmed a five-man Colombian television crew they had kidnapped on Sunday, also in Arauca province.

The RCN Television crew had traveled to Arauca to cover the kidnapping of Morris and Dalton and the region's deteriorating security when they were snatched by the FARC. RCN said rebels took the crew's equipment, including a satellite telephone.

Arauca, an oil-rich region of savannas and swamps bordering Venezuela, is one of the most violent zones in a war that kills thousands every year. Suspected rebels Sunday killed six soldiers after detonating the fourth car bomb in a month in a fresh challenge to hard-line President Alvaro Uribe. Uribe has declared areas in Arauca as "special war zones."

Despite the savagery of Colombia's war, foreign correspondents here have long enjoyed a type of diplomatic immunity, moving relatively free through the countryside and interviewing rebels and militias sometimes fresh from the killing field.

The Cuban-inspired ELN, a 1960s rebel group, kidnaps hundreds of people every year for ransom to pay for their struggle, which they say is to impose socialist reform in a country torn by the divide between rich and poor.