The Green Perspective On Events and Issues

On Saturday, August 31 a second "proof of life" for Ingrid Betancourt and Clara Rojas was delivered, in separate messages from the two women.

The tapes were apparently made about three months ago.

In her televised message, Ingrid seemed to ask for a military rescue operation, but cautioned the government that if a rescue is attempted, it should be carefully planned with the likelihood of success. She expressed support for a humanitarian exchange of combatants from both sides (FARC and the Army), but urged the government not to agree to any exchange of civilian abductees for imprisoned guerrillas.

She called for all Colombians to pray the Rosary, each Saturday at noon, for peace in Colombia and freedom for all abductees.

In her message, Clara said that if not for the conditions of her kidnapping, the place she's in would be close to a paradise: the Amazon forest.

The original text of a message sent out yesterday, from the Partido Verde Oxigeno (the Colombian Green Party), and a newspaper article from The Independent in London, are reprinted below.

For a Green Future,

Tony Affigne
Green Party of Rhode Island
IC Co-Chair

== Original text of 9/5/03 message from the Colombian Greens ==

PRUEBAS DE VIDA DE INGRID BETANCOURT Y CLARA ROJAS

Esta vez fueron dos mensajes por separado. Ingrid, en una clara demostracin de tica poltica no quiere que el Estado se sienta extorsionado por las FARC y pide una liberacin militar.

Eso s, que sea una liberacin con xito. Si el gobierno no est seguro de lograrlo es mejor que busque otras alternativas, el intercambio humanitario es para los combatientes, no para los civiles secuestrados. Esta es la posicin de nuestra lder poltica comprometida con su pas, dispuesta a todo a cambio de mantener la integridad de la autoridad del Estado, por encima de su situacin personal.

Para generar un encuentro espiritual y "virtual", Ingrid pidi que rezramos el rosario todos los sbados al medio da, para pedir por la paz de Colombia y la liberacin de todos los secuestrados, es un compromiso nacional de todos los colombianos interesados en una Colombia Nueva.

Por su parte Clarita dice, que ms all de su condicin de secuestrada, que ms all de su situacin particular, se encuentra en un lugar que podra ser el paraso; las selvas amaznicas.

Despus de estas nuevas pruebas de superviviencia, la segunda, desde el secuestro de las dos el 23 de febrero del ao pasado, el Partido Verde Oxgeno siente alegra de saberlas vivas, de saberlas fuertes, de saberlas nuestras.

====== Article from the Independent (UK) ======

HOSTAGE PLEADS FOR RESCUE IN VIDEO BY COLOMBIA REBELS

By John Lichfield in Paris
01 September 2003

Ingrid Betancourt, the celebrity hostage of left-wing guerrillas in Colombia, was shown alive and well -- and as pugnacious as ever -- in a videotape released by her captors at the weekend.

The tape was made three months ago and did not entirely calm the anxieties of Mme Betancourt's French and Colombian families, who fear she might be unwell, or even dead.

The rebels holding Mme Betancourt said yesterday they were prepared to meet a United Nations representative. The meeting -- should it be confirmed -- would mark the first dialogue with the 17,000-strong Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), since peace talks collapsed in February 2002.

The Colombian government's chief peace negotiator, Luis Carlos Restrepo, said: "There hasn't been anything official from the Brazilian government, nor from us, nor the United Nations. Instead, this [proposal] has been handed informally, as a hypothesis."

Mme Betancourt, 41, who holds French and Colombian citizenship, was kidnapped by the guerrillas while campaigning as the Green candidate in the country's presidential election in February last year. The new videotape, shown on Colombian television on Saturday, was the first proof of her well-being since a similar tape, recorded in May 2002, was released in July last year.

She looked thin but well. Her words had clearly not been scripted by her captors. She criticised Farc and the government in Bogota for failing to do more to resolve the plight of the thousands of hostages in Colombia. She urged the Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe, to rescue her, but only if the operation was well-planned.

"A rescue, yes, absolutely ... but not any kind of rescue. Rescues are either successful or they shouldn't happen," she said, twisting rosary beads around her hand. "It is very important that it is the President who evaluates the risk, and for that matter the chances of success ... I trust him."

Mme Betancourt, who campaigned against drugs and corruption as a Colombian senator, is the estranged wife of a French diplomat. Her case is famous in France, not least because she is a friend -- and former pupil -- of the French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin.

In July, M. de Villepin caused a diplomatic incident by sending a military transport plane to the Colombian-Brazilian border, containing a medical team and French special forces. The French government denied reports that it was part of an attempted swap of Mme Betancourt for arms.

In the new videotape, said to have been made in May, she urged the government to accept Farc's demands for swaps of guerrilla prisoners and kidnapped soldiers and police officers, but to refuse all exchanges of combatants for civilians, including herself.

"The exchange [of uniformed prisoners] is the moral obligation of a democratic state," she said. The civilians held as political hostages were entirely the responsibility of Farc, which must, she said, "make unilateral gestures of peace -- that is to say, humanitarian liberation".

Her mother, Yolanda Pulecio, said she opposed a rescue mission. "She is very brave," Ms Pulecio said. "But ... as a mother, a rescue terrifies me because her life is very valuable to us."