Cuba's former President Fidel Castro has called on the Colombian Farc
rebel movement to release all of its remaining hostages.
His comments follow the rescue of Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt
and 14 others on Wednesday.
He said he had energetically criticised the "cruel methods of kidnapping
and holding prisoners in the jungle".
But at the same time, Mr Castro added the rebel movement should not lay
down its weapons.
He said that, during the past 50 years, those rebel groups that had
yielded "did not survive to see the peace".
"I have openly and energetically criticised the objectively cruel
methods of kidnapping and holding prisoners in the jungle," he wrote in
an internet article posted on Sunday.
"If I may dare to suggest something to the Farc guerrillas, it is that
they simply, by whatever means at their disposal, declare that they have
unconditionally freed all the hostages and prisoners still under their
control."
Fidel Castro's revolution in Cuba served as an inspiration to the Farc
when it formed in the 1960s.
Tricked
Earlier, Ms Betancourt said she was planning to write a play about her
experience of being held hostage by the Colombian rebels for six years.
She also said she had been given a clean bill of health after undergoing
medical tests following her release from the Colombian jungle on Wednesday.
The former Colombian presidential candidate, who has dual
French-Colombian nationality, was freed along with 14 other hostages
after their captors were apparently tricked into handing them over to
army personnel disguised as independent agency staff.
On Friday Ms Betancourt - who grew up, studied and raised her family in
France - was flown from Colombia to Paris on a French presidential plane.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7492506.stm
Published: 2008/07/06 21:39:06 GMT
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