'I was in chains 24hrs a day'

2008-07-04 11:33

Paris - Freed Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt said on Friday she was chained up night and day for three years by her rebel captors but that spirituality saved her from the "abyss".

"I was in chains all the time, 24 hours a day, for three years," Betancourt told French radio Europe 1, just before boarding a plane for Paris following her release on Wednesday from six years of captivity in the Colombian jungle.

"I tried to wear those chains... with dignity, even if I felt that it was unbearable."

The 46-year-old politician, a practising Catholic, on Thursday described her release in a bloodless operation by the Colombian army as a "miracle of the Virgin Mary".

Betancourt, who has duel French-Colombian nationality, confirmed she suffered "moments of real crisis, hardship and abuse" at the hands of Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels. Asked whether she was tortured, she replied "Yes, yes."

"The only thing to say about that is that we all have a duty to watch ourselves. I felt there were temptations to let yourself go towards diabolical behaviour... I think you need tremendous spirituality to stop yourself falling into the abyss."

"It was so monstrous that I think they themselves were disgusted," she said of her treatment by the rebels.

But Betancourt also said she had decided not to reveal the bleak details of her ordeal.

"When I took that helicopter and rose up high above the jungle, I told myself that these sordid details should not be revealed to the public."

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas seized the former Colombian senator in February 2002 while she was campaigning for the presidency. She was freed in an army operation on Wednesday along with three American hostages and 11 Colombians.

She left Bogota late on Thursday bound for France where she is to be met by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Betancourt has also been invited to meet with Pope Benedict XVI next week at the Vatican.

- AFP