Colombia Rejects Demands by Journalists' Kidnappers

reuters.com Fri January 31, 2003 04:04 PM ET By Monica Garcia

TRES ESQUINAS, Colombia (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe cast doubt on the quick release of a kidnapped British reporter and U.S. photographer, saying on Friday that he refused to meet Marxist rebel demands to halt military offensives during the handoff.

The hard-line leader said quartering his troops would send "a contradictory message" to the war-torn Andean nation, while branding the journalists' planned release in eastern Arauca province a "show" meant to improve the image of the Cuban-inspired National Liberation Army, or ELN.

"The ELN should free the journalists without turning Arauca into dramatic spectacle. If the government signs off on the drama and the paraphernalia in Arauca, and the show, it would send contradictory messages, discourage our troops," said Uribe, whose father was killed by leftist rebels. "For this reason, deploring as we deplore the kidnapping of the journalists, yearning as we yearn for their release, the government has made the decision to proceed in Arauca with actions that do not affect the morale of the troops," he said, speaking at Tres Esquinas military base in southeastern Colombia.

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

The 5,000-member rebel army said in a communique this week it intended to soon free the reporters "safe and sound" as long as the country's president and the military did not try to rescue them by force. It also requested that a commission, composed of prominent officials, be present for the handoff.

The media have, in the past, accompanied rebels for the release of kidnap victims -- beaming images of the emotive handoffs to television sets across the nation.

Following Uribe's speech, a member of the proposed commission Jaime Bernal -- former public prosecutor -- branded the situation "delicate." He had not left for Arauca.

Colombia, ravaged by a four-decade-old guerrilla conflict, is one of the world's most dangerous places for reporters -- with eight Colombian journalists killed last year alone.

Still, until the kidnapping of Morris and Dalton, international press had gone relative unscathed. Leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitary outlaws have often posed for foreign press cameras and chatted happily into microphones.

Uribe said ELN abduction of Morris and Dalton was a clear attempt by the rebels to win points abroad by staging a spectacle, which the guerrilla had further hoped would be made safe with Colombian troops locked up in their barracks.

"When they kidnap international reporters and realize they have summoned an international reaction, then they start feverishly asking for commissions to unleash the drama and appear like kind-hearted observers and followers of international human rights law," Uribe declared.

"They don't do the same thing when they kidnap our middle class every day."

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.

But ELN forces have not appeared interested in money in kidnapping Morris and Dalton. Rebels stopped them at a roadblock, hooded them and took them to a secret guerrilla camp, according to their driver, who was later released.

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 killed six soldiers in Arauca on Sunday, in the fourth car bomb attack there in January.