Today 8 May, the anniversary of the Liberation of France is the 1900th day spent by Ingrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian deputy and senator as a hostage in Colombia.

The International Federation of Ingrid Betancourt committees (FICIB)takes this opportunity to publish on its website an open letter to Nicolas Sarkozy thanking him for having publicly mentioned the name of the French-Colombian hostage during his first speech as the newly elected President in Gaveau Hall.

The FICIB reminds him that Ingrid’s liberation like that of Clara Rojas and the other political hostages whose fates are inextricably linked, can only be achieved through a negotiated and non-violent solution and that a military rescue mission, such as envisaged by military personnel close to President Uribe has been unanimously rejected by the hostages’ families – and in particular by Ingrid’s family.

The Federation stresses that the deep-rooted violence of the humanitarian tragedy in Colombia has political as well as economic roots and that the responsibility for this lies both with rebel forces and paramilitaries, the later having carried out the worst atrocities.

The FICIB wishes to express its full solidarity with all victims of the Colombian conflict who are now forgotten; those who have been displaced, disappeared, murdered, tortured, human beings reduced to pawns in a many-sided battle.

The FICIB maintains that France can have a key role to play, not only in the freeing of Ingrid Betancourt but also in the working out of a peaceful and negotiated solution to the Colombian conflict and thanks the President-elect for initiatives he may wish to undertake on behalf of France in this regard.