|
Hostages tell of life in chains
14/01/2008 14:01 - (SA)
Bogota - Hostages of Colombian guerrillas move around jungle camps with chains around their necks that are wrapped around a log at night when they sleep, always fearing execution at the first sign of a rescue attempt, a former captive said.
"Soldiers and police live in chains all day long. They have one around their neck for anything they do. The rest of the chain they keep in a sack slung over their shoulder," Consuelo Gonzalez, 57, told Bogota's Radio Caracol.
"They clean themselves in chains. They wash their clothes in chains, they eat in chains. And at night, their chains are tied and locked around a log near each and every bed where they sleep," she said a day after being released.
Gonzalez, a former Colombian lawmaker, and Clara Rojas, 44, a political aide to French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt, were freed by Colombia's FARC rebel group on Thursday after six and five years of captivity respectively.
They were among some 750 hostages kept by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in the secret jungle camps in Colombia's rugged interior.
Inhuman conditions
Although the two women appeared healthy and in good spirits after their ordeal, they spoke of the inhuman conditions rebel hostages are kept in and the fear and sickness they constantly have to cope with.
Gonzalez said 10 other hostages in her group she left behind "all have health problems with different symptoms."
"And the worse thing is that nobody knows what they're stricken with because (in the jungle) there's no possibility at all of getting a medical consultation or check-up."
She said the only pain relief available to the hostages "is through a guerrilla they call 'the nurse,' who has some pills against stomach ache or diarrhoea."
The captives are also subjected to long treks through the jungle as they are forced to move from rebel camp to camp, and often face "very high risk situations" when the guerrillas are confronted by military forces.
"We heard the bombs go off a few meters (yards) from where we stood. The helicopters with their machine guns shooting and us right nearby."
She recalled a rebel guard leader always reminding them that "if there's a rescue attempt, their orders were to kill us".
"We were totally aware of that. Even more so when we were locked up, because a rescue attempt in those circumstances cannot possibly turn out well," Gonzalez said.
Escape
Clara Rojas said that, like many other hostages, she and Betancourt, 46, always thought of escaping their jungle prison, despite the dangers it involved.
She said the rebel guards often showed them what they would face if they tried to escape: "They scared us with tarantulas and serpents and told us stories about people who got lost in the jungle."
Nevertheless, she and Betancourt broke free one time.
"We began planning (the escape) and when the opportunity came up we left, but we had no luck because we got lost," she said in an interview with "La W" radio station.
"We didn't manage to get very far from the (guerrilla) camp where we were kept, because we did it at night and because of the conditions in the jungle," she added.
Rojas said she and Betancourt and other hostages tried repeatedly to escape only to be caught every time.
As punishment, they were put in chains.
"They would put us in chains. First for some 15 days, and later they would leave them on only at night."
|
News
