ELN Wants Observers

Today at Berria:

ELN and hostages request that a group of observers be sent

The ELN have threatened to execute the seven tourists if the Colombian Army attempts a rescue operation

Amagoia Iban – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

The Colombian priest, Dario Echeverri, told BERRIA yesterday: “Before the week is up we hope to receive proof that all the hostages are alive.” The trail of the seven tourists was lost exactly two months ago yesterday, the very day that video images of the seven tourists “retained” by the ELN since September 12 were broadcast all over the world, thus keeping the promise made to the Committee of Mediators of the Catholic Church. In fact, Asier Huegun’s relatives consider the video to be the proof requested from the ELN, the Colombian National Liberation Army, and say they have also felt “relief.”

The images on the video in the jungle were recorded by the ELN members themselves and then handed over to Reuters news agency to be broadcast all over the world. Some parts of the video appear with the dates of October 20 and 29. Others with November 2. The tourists look thin and tired in the pictures, but they have not lost their smiles. Asier Huegun, the Basque citizen, Reinhilt Weigel, the German, and Mark Henderson, the Briton, speak in front of the camera as well. “It’s been a tough experience. From the start we’ve had to walk a lot, even in places I never imagined existed in Colombia. We’ve been cold and very hungry,” said the fully bearded Huegun against the backdrop of an ELN flag in one of the video sequences. “All this must have been because of the tremendous blockade the Sierra Nevada is enduring, because they were prevented from bringing food and things up here.” In this respect the Donostia-born hostage agreed with the denunciations made by the ELN guerrillas to a Reuters reporter in the Sierra Nevada: right-wing paramilitary groups are disrupting the food supply for the Sierra Nevada inhabitants.

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