ColombiaFARC rebels apologize for kidnapping 27,000 Colombians

FARC fighters agree to lay down their arms and apologize for kidnappings // Source: theconversation.com

In a video recording released late Sunday, Colombia’s Marxist FARC rebels have apologized for the “great pain” they caused by kidnapping thousands of people and holding them for ransom to fund their 52-year war against successive Colombian governments.

On 24 August the leadership of the FARC – short for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – signed a formal agreement with the Colombian government to put an end to South America’s longest war.

The two sides are scheduled to sign the peace agreement on 26 September. Colombia will hold a national referendum on the agreement on 2 October.

In the video, the FARC said that it had taken captives over the years but would not do so again.

The war has killed more than 220,000 people and forced 6.6 million out of their homes. At the height of the war, from the late 1980s to the late 1990s, the FARC controlled an area the size of Switzerland in south-east Colombia, and collaborated closely with the drug cartels.

The Voice of America reports that FARC’s commander and lead negotiator, Ivan Márquez, said in the recording: “We want to acknowledge, with the sentiment of humanity and reconciliation, that during the conflict the Farc also caused great pain with the retention of people for ransom.

“That conduct, while always used to sustain the needs of the rebellion, resulted in harming entire families,” he said from Havana, Cuba, where negotiations took place.

Official figures show that some 27,000 people were kidnapped between 1970 and 2010. About 90 percent of them were seized by the FARC, while the others were captured by the ELN, a smaller Marxist guerrilla.

In addition to kidnapping, the FARC used extortion and the drug trade to finance its campaign.