World | Other World Stories
French rejoice over miracle rescue from the jungle
Giant portraits of Ingrid Betancourt have graced town halls across France for years as a reminder of her captivity. Yesterday, supporters planned to party outside Paris City Hall and hang a new banner across her portrait there: "Freed!"
- AP
- Published: 00:07 July 4, 2008
Paris: Giant portraits of Ingrid Betancourt have graced town halls across France for years as a reminder of her captivity. Yesterday, supporters planned to party outside Paris City Hall and hang a new banner across her portrait there: "Freed!"
The Colombian army operation Wednesday freeing the French-Colombian dual citizen and 14 other hostages elicited cheers and tears of joy in France, where President Nicolas Sarkozy and thousands of supporters had campaigned for Betancourt's release.
Le Figaro's front-page spread yesterday proclaimed Betancourt "free at last." "Free" and "Freed," echoed the one-word headlines in Le Parisien and Liberation dailies. Sarkozy's office said Betancourt was expected in Paris yesterday afternoon, with a ceremony at the military air base to welcome her.
Sarkozy's chief of staff, Claude Gueant, told French TV that France "did not take part" in the daring Colombian operation.
He said the Colombians had told France they were mulling possible operations, but "we weren't expecting it at that moment," he said. He said they only learned of the operation 15 minutes before the first Colombian press reports.
Rare accord
There was rare political accord on the role that Sarkozy and the previous government of President Jacques Chirac played in keeping up international pressure to win Betancourt's freedom. That France had pushed for a humanitarian accord - not a military operation - seemed forgotten.
"The lesson I take from this is that international pressure works," Human Rights Minister Rama Yade said. Socialist Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, a frequent critic of Sarkozy's conservative government, praised Sarkozy and Chirac.
In Colombia, Betancourt herself thanked the French government and people for their support. Towns across France kept Betancourt's portrait up for years, and her support committee held constant rallies.
"I want to tell President Sarkozy - and through him all the French people - that they were our support, our light," Betancourt said.
"At the end of my life, I'd like them to bury me in France," Betancourt added.
"I think I owe that to them. If I'm alive today, it's because of them."
The news pierced deepest for her children, Melanie and Lorenzo Delloye, who live in France and were headed to Bogota to be reunited with their mother.
Background: Potent force
- The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) was established in the 1960s as a Communist-inspired peasant army fighting for land reform and to reduce the gulf still dividing rich and poor in the Andean country.
- Branded a terrorist organisation by the United States and European Union, the Farc has been driven onto the defensive by President Alvaro Uribe's US-backed security campaign. The United States has given Colombia $5.5 billion (Dh20 billion) in mostly military aid over the last seven years.
- US and Colombian authorities say the Farc has used the multibillion-dollar Colombian cocaine trade to fund its operations. The four-decade-old conflict is now often a fight over drug-producing land involving the Farc, right-wing paramilitaries and other narcotics gangs.
- The Farc still holds sway in some rural areas where it grows coca, the raw material for cocaine, and keeps kidnap victims hostage in secret jungle camps. Betancourt and the three American defense contractors were the group's highest-profile hostages.
- The Farc had been holding about 40 high-profile hostages it had sought to exchange for jailed rebels.
- Violence has eased and the economy has expanded in Colombia's central, north and northwest urban areas, but the Farc is still a potent force in the southern jungle regions where the state's presence is still weak.
- Two top rebel commanders were killed in March, a serious blow to the Farc. One, Raul Reyes, was a Farc spokesman and contact for negotiations over hostages. Reyes was killed in his camp in Ecuador in a cross-border strike that sparked a diplomatic crisis in the Andean region.
- Reuters
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