Colext: Some more on Colombia...

[Ricardo Ramirez]

==================================================                 But the already convoluted negotiations over the                 hostages suffered another blow Monday with reports                 that the ELN intends to keep the richer hostages                 until their families pay ransom. _____________   ================================================== MIAMI HERALD Tuesday, 15 June 1999                  Colombian rebels may not free                 all their hostages, reports say                 -------------------------------         By Juan O. Tamayo BOGOTA -- Arrangements to free about 80 hostages kidnapped by leftist guerrillas hit a snag Monday amid complaints that the rebels plan to release only some of the victims and hold the others for ransom. Venezuela's ambassador to Colombia, Fernando Gerbassi, a member of the international panel invited to witness the release, said it would begin today or Wednesday instead of Monday as scheduled. Release of the hostages, kidnapped from a church in Cali, an Avianca airliner and a river boat, would clear the way for peace contacts between the government and rebels of the National Liberation Army, or ELN. But the already convoluted negotiations over the hostages suffered another blow Monday with reports that the ELN intends to keep the richer hostages until their families pay ransom. Former Foreign Minister Noemi Sanin, one of the Colombian political and church figures negotiating with the ELN, urged that the talks be halted until the rebels promise to free all hostages, but she was outvoted, according to published reports. While the Cali and Avianca kidnappings outraged many Colombians, both the ELN and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have continued to abduct civilians from rural highways, a practice so common that most go unreported. Seventeen people were taken from a bus in a remote mountain road just last weekend, and El Tiempo newspaper reported that rebels had seized an estimated 180 people in the two months since the Avianca hijacking. Further rocking the hostage negotiations, two of the three German Parliament members invited by the ELN to witness the releases accused the rebels of acting in bad faith and appeared to say they had not agreed to come. ``The ELN wants to give the impression that the German government and its Parliament members support its policy,'' Karin Kortmann said. ``I never considered taking part in the release of hostages.'' Also invited by the ELN to witness the release were two Venezuelans, including Gerbassi, and two Spaniards, including the Spanish ambassador to Bogota, Yago Pico de Coana. Underlining the complicated nature of the talks, the one Berlin Parliament member who accepted the ELN invitation was Bernd Schmidbauer, head of Germany's intelligence services under former Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Schmidbauer spearheaded a German government attempt in 1996 to broker secret deals between the Colombian government, the ELN and drug lords to end the guerrilla war and curb the narcotics trade. His main agent then was Werner Mauss, later alleged to have been too sympathetic with the ELN and to have profited handsomely from his role as ransom mediator in several rebel kidnappings. ELN leaders initially requested that Schmidbauer be named to the panel negotiating the hostages' freedom, but President Andres Pastrana allowed him only to witness the releases, government officials said. The ELN still holds 25 passengers and crew from the hijacked airplane, 51 hostages from La Maria Church in Cali and nine fishing enthusiasts taken from a river boat last weekend. One Avianca hostage died from a heart attack. The ELN and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia also hold 188 captured soldiers and police and are demanding to exchange them for captured guerrillas.         Copyright 1999 Miami Herald