Freed hostage gets hero's welcome in France
PARIS —
Freed Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt said Friday she owed her life to France, in an emotional visit to Paris where she received a hero’s welcome after her six-year hostage ordeal in the jungle.
Snatched from the grip of Marxist FARC rebels in a Colombian army operation Wednesday, along with three U.S. hostages and 11 Colombians, Betancourt arrived at an airbase west of Paris on board a French presidential flight from Bogota.
Applause broke out as the 46-year-old, dressed in a dark blue suit, walked smiling down the stairs of the plane to embrace President Nicolas Sarkozy and First Lady Carla Bruni, waiting to welcome her to her second home.
“I am so happy to breathe the air of France. I owe France everything,” the former Colombian presidential candidate, who also has French nationality, told the crowd waiting to welcome her at Villacoublay airbase.
“I have shed a great many tears of pain and indignation. Today I am crying with joy,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. “You saved my life.”
“Ingrid Betancourt, welcome. France loves you,” Sarkozy told her.
Betancourt paid a personal tribute to the French president, who made her release a top priority, as “this extraordinary man who fought so hard for me.”
“This extraordinary, perfect operation by the Colombian army… is also the result of your struggle,” she said, explaining that France staunchly opposed any armed “military operation that would put the hostages’ lives in danger.”
Betancourt was accompanied on the French government flight by her daughter Melanie, 22, and son Lorenzo, 19.
Speaking later at a reception with her supporters at the Elysee palace, she urged Sarkozy to keep working to free the hundreds of other hostages still held by Colombia’s FARC rebels, Latin America’s most powerful left-wing insurgency.
“I need to count on our president for him to go to Colombia again,” she said, vowing to fight for the release of “the companions I left behind” in Colombia, where the FARC is said to hold hundreds of hostages.
“Let it be clear, we will continue,” the French president replied.
Paris is where Betancourt grew up, studied and raised her family. Her children had waged a relentless campaign for their mother’s release, making her a cause celebre in France.
Giant posters reading “Free at Last” were unfurled Friday on the building of the French National Assembly in her honor.
Betancourt was to spend Saturday undergoing an in-depth medical examination at a military hospital in Paris, according to a source.
Though she told reporters she felt “in great shape,” she developed a string of ailments while in captivity, possibly including hepatitis.
Betancourt said in a radio interview she had been chained up night and day for three years by her rebel captors.
“I was in chains all the time, 24 hours a day, for three years,” she said. “I tried to wear those chains… with dignity, even if I felt that it was unbearable.”
Asked whether she was tortured, she replied: “Yes, yes.” She said she saw her captors lapsing into “diabolical behavior.”
“It was so monstrous that I think they themselves were disgusted,” she said.
A fervent Catholic who called her release a “miracle of the Virgin Mary,” Betancourt has also been invited to meet Pope Benedict XVI. “It is a meeting that one cannot pass up,” she said.
The Colombian army rescue mission was a huge triumph in President Alvaro Uribe’s long battle against the leftist rebels. A news outlet close to FARC said Thursday the group would be open to peace talks with the Uribe government.
A Swiss radio report said members of the FARC were bribed millions of dollars (euros) to turn against their group and free Betancourt, and that the army operation to neutralise them was a “set-up.”
The U.S. ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield and the Colombian army head denied such reports.
Later thousands of people watched as Betancourt took down a poster of her face displayed on the Paris Town Hall during her captivity.
“The future is opening up, full of opportunities,” she said later on the TF1 television channel. “I don’t have to carry the past like a burden. What hurt me in the jungle stays in the jungle.”
AFP
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yabits
Viva la France!
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RedMeatKoolAid
Great story. Not a shot fired. The Columbians spent years gathering intel, doing reconnaissance, finally infiltrating via a seemingly sympathetic group - and in absolutely brilliant disguise:
"The pilots, she said, were posing as members of a relief organization, but “they were dressed like clowns,” wearing Che Guevara shirts, so she assumed they were rebels.
But when they were airborne, she looked behind her and saw Cesar, who had treated her so cruelly for so many years, lying on the floor blindfolded.
“The chief of the operation said, ‘We’re the national army. You’re free,”‘ she said. “The helicopter almost fell from the sky because we were jumping up and down, yelling, crying, hugging one another. We couldn’t believe it.”
The operation, Santos said, “will go into history for its audacity and effectiveness.”
via MSNBC
So remember to ask the next sentimental Lefty you see sporting a Che Guevara t-shirt if he is with the Columbian Army.
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PepinGalarga
its so curious that the whole operation occured the same day that McCain was visiting there. I guess the current administration needs all the good news it can get about their replacement. I wouldn't be surprised if mounds of cash were offered to stage this.
anyway, FARC is going down. Colombians have broken free from stagnation and the economy is doing much better than before, so relations with the US are now seen as a major positive. I hope this carries over to neighboring countries that still live in the stone age under opressing regimes. Revolutionaries go back to your mountains in Venezuela, Cuba and Ecuador!
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rajakumar
Freed so many now, sammy al haj(aljazeera reporter), japanese tourist hostage in iran,betancourt in colombia jungles, and many others.
Many hostage affairs are coming to a close in many nations, time for freedom for hostages. Many guantanamo prisoners also freed.
Next may be only 22 year old Gilad shalit, of lebanon-israel conflict should be next, if negotiations and deals go through.
There is also palestinian prisoners in israel, that need to be freed,in proper manner in exchange, in deals of mutual benefits.
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yabits
The faith and support that the French people kept up during the entire duration of her captivity is quite noteworthy.
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rajakumar
To be free, priceless gift of Ingrid Betancourt,returned.
Something we all take for granted. Many more hostages need to be freed,and to be returned their priceless gift, worldwide.
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