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FARC HAS OFFERED TO FREE BETANCOURT : URIBE

Received Friday, 13 June 2008 19:44:00 GMT

BOGOTA, June 13, 2008 (AFP) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said Friday a FARC guerrilla had offered to free French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt if his government agreed not to extradite a member of the rebel group.
 "I hope it was sincere, the guerrilla’s offer communicated to the chief of the DAS (Colombian secret police) to release Doctor Ingrid Betancourt. We would respect our pledge not to extradite if it happened," Uribe told a meeting in Bogota.
 The Colombian leader first mentioned the offer Thursday and said he had accepted it, but Friday revealed that it pertained to Betancourt, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia’s (FARC’s) highest profile hostage.
 Seized in 2002 as she campaigned for the Colombian presidency, Betancourt is a dual French-Colombian national and one of 39 hostages the FARC wants to swap for some 500 rebels held in Colombian jails.
 The group also includes dozens of Colombian soldiers and police and three US nationals.
 "Just now the director of the DAS told me she received a call from FARC, in which a FARC individual told her : ’If the president promises, through DAS, not to extradite a FARC member, then they would go ahead with the immediate release of hostages,’" Uribe said Thursday in Risaralda, in Colombia’s east.
 "I made the pledge. I told them yes, we promise not to extradite this person, but that they should release their hostages," Uribe said.
 Colombian Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo received a similar proposal last week, in which a FARC contact asked for guarantees that rebels involved in any handover could go into exile, Uribe said.
 "The rebels asked if we could guarantee that those who released the hostages would not be taken to jail and if they could immediately go to other countries, like France.
 "Our response was positive. ’Free the hostages, and simultaneously they can get on an airplane and go to a foreign country,’" Uribe said.
 Luis Eladio Perez , a former FARC hostage freed in February, told AFP Monday that FARC would free hostages, possibly including Betancourt, in a week.