Defector: Colombia rebels will not release key hostages

BOGOTA, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Colombia's rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has no intention of freeing its top hostages, a guerrilla that defected from the group told local radio Monday.

Pablo Montoya had been a member of the FARC for 16 years until he killed his immediate superior, the group's number-seven official Ivan Rios, last Friday for a 2.6-million-U.S. dollar reward.

Montoya turned himself in to authorities, carrying the severed hand of Rios, saying he killed Rios and his girlfriend.

Montoya said the FARC would hold trials for the three U.S. contractors currently held captive, in the same way that the United States had tried FARC fighters Omaira Rojas Cabrera, alias Sonia, and Juvenal Ovidio Ricardo Palmera Pineda, alias Simon Trinidad.

Former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who a former hostage said was very ill, will not be freed because she is "a very rebellious lady," he added.

Betancourt, kidnapped in 2002, is currently held in southern Colombia's rainforest, he said. Former senator Oscar Lizcano, who has also been held since 2002, is in the west or northwest of the nation, in the hands of the Aurelio Rodriguez front.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has expressed concern about the fate of Betancourt, who has French nationality.

Sarkozy has offered to personally bring her back to France to her awaiting family should she be released.

The FARC has released six people since the start of the year to Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, who acted as mediator between the FARC and the Colombian government from August to November last year, until Colombia's government ended his role saying he had broken with protocol.

Last week, the FARC turned over videos and other evidence showing that Betancourt and 10 other hostages are still alive.

SANTO DOMINGO, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday called for the resumption of efforts to bring about the release of hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

A multi-national commission should be set up for their release if necessary, Chavez said at the 20th Rio Group Summit in the Dominican Republic's capital Santo Domingo. Full story

PARIS, March 5 (Xinhua) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday urged the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to release French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt.

Sarkozy said he had taped an appeal to be shown on Colombian television urging the release of Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate who was seized by rebels six years ago, Le Figaro daily reported. Full story

QUITO, March 2 (Xinhua) -- The Ecuadorian government ordered on Sunday to withdraw its ambassador from Colombia, Francisco Suescum, saying it was protesting "a transgression of the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity" by Colombia's army.

Jose Valencia, Ecuador's deputy foreign minister, told media that the measure does not imply the end of a relationship with its northern neighbor, because trade links remain intact. Full story

BOGOTA, March 1 (Xinhua) -- The Colombian military killed a top member of the country's largest anti-government group in an air-and-ground raid Saturday, said the government.

Raul Reyes, one of the seven-member secretariat of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was killed in an attack on a jungle camp across the Colombia-Ecuador border, in which 16 other FARC members and one Colombian military soldier were also left dead, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told reporters. Full story

BOGOTA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Colombia's Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) handed over on Wednesday four former legislators to a Venezuelan government and International Red Cross mission (ICRC).

The four former legislators Luis Perez, Orlando Beltran, Eduardo Gechem and Gloria Polanco were picked up by Venezuelan helicopters in a rural zone called La Poderosa in Guaviare department, southeast of Colombia at 12:10 p.m. local time (1710 GMT).