Former presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt has issued a statement in which she states she is pleased by Alvaro Uribe’s decision to all Senator Piedad Cordoba to mediate in the hostage handover.

Ingrid Betancourt thinks this decision offers guarantees for the humanitarian plan to free those held hostage by FARC.

She also stated the government wants the return of the bodies of those who died in captivity, because it is a matter of human dignity.

Here is the full text of the statement:

“I am very happy with the President’s announcement. Piedad Cordoba’s participation is very important and her presence guarantees the lives of the hostages.

I also appreciate that he asks for the return of the bodies that remain buried in the jungle. This is a matter of human dignity, of respect. I am sure that this gesture will allow many wounds to heal. I think he is correct to ask that all hostages be released. This is a credit to him and is something that reassures us.

Moreover, if I understood correctly, asking that releases to take part simultaneously does not exclude them from happening in different places, which could interest the guerrilla. I only hope that the intentions are serious and that people are not playing with the feelings of the hostages and their families.

Too often we saw both sides using details to justify their rejection of genuine possibilities of an agreement. We have been playing this awful game for 13 years already”.

Luis Eladio Pérez: Uribe’s conditions will not be accepted by FARC.

“I am worried by the lack of political will in this offer, because the President of the Republic knows perfectly well that FARC want to exchange their hostages for rebels held in State goals”, said Perez on the TeleSur channel.

The conditions set by the Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe,to allow Senator Piedad Cordoba mediate in the handover of Corporal Pablo Emilio Moncayo, held for 11 years by FARC, will not receive a positive reply.

So said former FARC hostage, Luis Eladio Perez, who, in an interview on TeleSur, also indicated that Uribe must know that the rebel group always showed its willingness to go towards a humanitarian exchange, that would include the freeing of hostages for those rebels imprisoned in Colombian jails.

FICIB: indignant.

In a statement on Thursday, FICIB, (the International Federation of LIBertad Committees – ex Betancourt committees) thinks that President Uribe’s gesture allowing Senator Piedad Cordoba to take part in the handover by FARC of two hostages, has the merit of reopening discussions on a problem that has been deadlocked for the last two months now.

However FICIB states that new conditions imposed by the president, far from offering a solution to the problem, could on the contrary set up new obstacles, and in any case have the immediate effect of blocking the release of these two hostages, promised by FARC in April on condition that the handover would be made to Piedad Cordoba and Gustavo Moncayo, the father of one of the two hostages to be released.

As well, by demanding the simultaneous release of all 24 hostages, President Uribe rules out the holding of talks towards a humanitarian exchange between hostages and captured rebels, as the guerrilla want. So it is difficult to imagine a positive answer from FARC.

FICIB is indignant that, once again, neither side seems to consider the humanitarian aspect of the situation, but that, on the contrary, they use hostages as mere pawns, in a game where the only thing at stake seems to be political advantage.