From: Colombian Labor Monitor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2001 20:31:37 -0500 (CDT)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: CLM: Weekend Digest 1 July 2001
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COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR
www.prairienet.org/clm
Sunday, 1 July 2001
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* WEEKEND DIGEST *
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3. XINHUA NEWS AGENCY [China] -- Sunday, 1 July 2001
Colombia Rebel Group Releases More Prisoners
* 3 *
XINHUA NEWS AGENCY [China]
Sunday, 1 July 2001
Colombia Rebel Group Releases More Prisoners
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BOGOTA -- Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC), Saturday released 32 more captured soldiers and
policemen, the Colombian state news agency Ancol reported.
The FARC handed over the prisoners to the government peace negotiator
Camilo Gomez, in the presence of foreign diplomats and Red Cross
representatives, in the rural area of Encarnacion, some 400 kilometers
northwest of Bogota, Ancol said.
According to Red Cross sources, preliminary physical examinations found
the prisoners are in good health.
The 32 freed prisoners were captured in military conflicts in the towns of
Vigia del Fuerte, Nutibara, Dadeiba, and Urrao, in the state of Antioquia,
and Tamborales, on the border with Panama.
Freed soldiers and police agents will reunite with family members waiting
for them at the Pedro Nel Ospina battalion in the town of Bello, on the
outskirts of Medellin's metropolitan area.
The Colombian government and the FARC have been exchanging prisoners after
they reached an accord on June 2, widely seen as a major breakthrough in
arduous peace talks that started more than two years ago.
Under the humanitarian prisoner swap deal, the FARC freed 55 ailing
military personnel and police they held in exchange for 15 FARC rebels
with health problems in the government's custody.
As a unilateral gesture of peace, the FARC announced later they would set
free another 300 detained government soldiers and policemen, of whom 242
were released Thursday.
According to government estimates, the FARC rebels hold hostage some 450
soldiers and police officers in years of conflicts.
Colombia is locked in a 37-year-long civil war between leftist rebels,
far-right paramilitaries and the government armed forces, in which about
200,000 people have been killed and an average of 3, 000 kidnappings took
place every year.
Copyright 2001 Xinhua News Agency
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