Colombia rebuffs Europe petition on hostage deaths
Source: Reuters
BOGOTA, June 30 (Reuters) - Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe on Saturday rejected a request by three European countries for an international probe into the killing of 11 hostages held by rebels for more than five years. France, Spain and Switzerland have tried for more than a year to broker an accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, on freeing hostages kidnapped by guerrillas in the country's long-running insurgency. "The government cannot accept statements from the three European delegates that put us on an equal level, that measure the FARC and the government by the same standard," Uribe said. Colombians were shocked on Thursday when the FARC announced that 11 Colombian politicians, kidnapped in 2002, had been killed in cross-fire during combat. The three European countries had proposed an investigation by a Geneva-based commission into the deaths. "This is not about a state of war, this about a challenge by terrorists against a democracy," he said. "I ask the three European delegates to do the following: respect this country." Uribe said the guerrillas had murdered the men, and asked the Organization of American States to help recover their bodies. The killings have threatened fragile attempts to broker an accord on the release of key rebel hostages, including a French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt kidnapped in 2002 and three American contract workers snatched in 2003. The talks have been stalled over a rebel demand Uribe demilitarize a safe haven in a rural area the size of New York City. Uribe refused, saying that would allow the FARC to regroup in an area strategic for drugs and arms trafficking.
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