Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – TSR, Swiss public television, will run a documentary 5 February following its own investigation into charges by Colombian authorities that Jean-Pierre Gontard paid CHF500,000 in ransom money to Farc rebels in order to gain the release of Novartis employees taken hostage.
Six “high profile” hostages, reports the BBC, will be liberated by Farc, the Colombian rebel group, in the next four days, according to Senator Piedad Cordoba who has been involved in previous negotiations with the group. The Geneva-based ICRC (Internaional Red Cross), reportedly involved in the release, has made no public comment. The BBC says this is the first voluntary release of hostages by Farc in the past 12 months.
They are celebrities, they are important people in many ways, they were hostages, they speak with remarkably soft voices and you wonder why: each has taken the rest of us to the edge and left us to consider how we would cope under their circumstances. The one TV moment of 2008 that no one should miss is BBC journalist and former hostage in Gaza, Alan Johnston, interviewing Ingrid Betancourt, Colombia’s one-tme presidential candidate who was taken hostage by rebel group Farc.
Reuters reports that the fighting in Mumbai between security forces and commandos in Mumbai, India appears to be ending, but it appears that the commandoes may still be holding some hostages.
A moving amateur video carried by the BBC shows the moment when Colombian hostage Oscar Tulio Lizcano was brought out of captivity by his former Farc captor. The two travelled for three days and went without sleep for 72 hours to escape through the jungle. BBC story
The longest held politician-hostage in Colombia, 63-year-old Óscar Lizcano, escaped the Farc rebels who have held him, with one of his captors, making a three-day trek through the jungle. International Herald Tribune
