Spring Break
International Brief
Issue date: 2/3/03 Section: News
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Rebels free two kidnapped journalists
BOGOTA, Colombia (KRT) — Rebels on Saturday freed two foreign journalists, the first to be kidnapped in this South American nation in decades.
Texas photographer Scott Dalton and British writer Ruth Morris, on assignment for the Los Angeles Times, were reported in good health after 11 days in captivity.
The National Liberation Army, or ELN, released the pair to an International Red Cross delegation in eastern Colombia and they were flown to Bogota.
Still, experts say, Colombia remains one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists and the risks are likely to rise as the country’s four-decade-old civil war intensifies.
The journalists’ kidnapping alarmed U.S. and Colombian officials and underscored how unsafe the country has become. Some 26,000 people are murdered in Colombia every year.
“Anyone can be kidnapped these days. No one is safe,” said Felipe Sinisterra, who helps run a photo gallery of kidnap victims and their families. “There have been 16,000 kidnappings in Colombia since 1987 — and the number rises every day.”
One reason journalists in Colombia face particular threat is that the civil war is heating up, analysts say.
Government troops over the past year have stepped up efforts to capture rebels and the United States is assisting.
Through a counternarcotics effort called Plan Colombia, the United States is giving Colombia more than $1.5 billion in mostly military aid to fight the rebels who back the drug trade. U.S. law also allows as many as 500 American troops to be stationed in the country in a non-combat, training-oriented role.
BOGOTA, Colombia (KRT) — Rebels on Saturday freed two foreign journalists, the first to be kidnapped in this South American nation in decades.
Texas photographer Scott Dalton and British writer Ruth Morris, on assignment for the Los Angeles Times, were reported in good health after 11 days in captivity.
The National Liberation Army, or ELN, released the pair to an International Red Cross delegation in eastern Colombia and they were flown to Bogota.
Still, experts say, Colombia remains one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists and the risks are likely to rise as the country’s four-decade-old civil war intensifies.
The journalists’ kidnapping alarmed U.S. and Colombian officials and underscored how unsafe the country has become. Some 26,000 people are murdered in Colombia every year.
“Anyone can be kidnapped these days. No one is safe,” said Felipe Sinisterra, who helps run a photo gallery of kidnap victims and their families. “There have been 16,000 kidnappings in Colombia since 1987 — and the number rises every day.”
One reason journalists in Colombia face particular threat is that the civil war is heating up, analysts say.
Government troops over the past year have stepped up efforts to capture rebels and the United States is assisting.
Through a counternarcotics effort called Plan Colombia, the United States is giving Colombia more than $1.5 billion in mostly military aid to fight the rebels who back the drug trade. U.S. law also allows as many as 500 American troops to be stationed in the country in a non-combat, training-oriented role.
— The Dallas Morning News
