Subject: FWD: [UKBN] birders kidnapped in Colombia
Date: Apr 9 15:47:24 1998
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Hi Tweets,

>From UKBirdnet:

Willem-Pier Vellinga, who forwarded this post to UKBN, also writes:

More recent information (in Spanish) may be obtained from the WWW sites
of two newspapers in Colombia:

www.eltiempo.com
www.elespectador.com

www.cnn.com has been rather well informed as well.

So, in this instance, I'll retract the rather unkind things I said about CNN.

M


>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>Dear all,
>Have just returned from Colombia. First, I was not involved with Todd
>Mark's birding trip nor was I kidnapped as some reports suggested. I
>will
>provide a brief outline of events in Colombia to inform those
>interested:
>
>The Colombian Presidential elections are taking place in mid-May.
>Typically, as in the past 42 years, this has been a strategic period for
>guerrilla activities in which they make their anti-government voice
>felt.
>This strategy is not new and in fact widely used throughout the world,
>e.g.
>IRA bombing campaign in UK 1997 elections. The 1998 FARC and ELN
>pre-election campaign is very strong and highly effective, to the
>concern of
>the government and its supporters. For example, Caquet department in
>southern Colombia is an all out war-zone with the guerrilla making
>several
>devastating blows against the military and nationwide attacks of
>military
>installations (mostly unreported), however no problems were reported for
>foreigners. In fact there hasn't been a US citizen kidnapped since
>1995.
>Interestingly, there is a strong correlation of US citizens kidnapped in
>relation to US Government aid to fight the guerrilla in Colombia. For
>example US aid peaked in 1990 ($93 million; 11 kidnapped) and decreased
>to
>1995 ($23 million; 1 kidnapped). No aid has been given since (Colombia
>was
>decertified by US) and no US citizen kidnapped!
>
>On March 19th our worst nightmare scenario occurred. The US government
>announced a $52 million aid package against the guerrilla. Furthermore
>they
>pledged a large fleet of Cobra attack helicopters (manned by US crews)
>and
>much military hardware. Needless to say the Colombian government was
>delighted and the guerrilla was furious. This wasn't an anti-narcotics
>cash
>and arms deal - this was directly aimed against the left-wing guerrilla.
>Reports spoke of a "Vietnamization" and guerrilla groups publicly
>denounced
>the US aid and ordered retaliation.
>
>Coming out of the field on March 21st I asked locals about the local
>situation (as a matter of standard procedure) and they said "Have you
>not
>heard?".... I quickly finished fieldwork and returned to Cali on March
>23
>- it was obvious that the next few weeks would be difficult for any
>"gringo"
>foreigner as the situation was tense to say the least.
>
>The road transportation union of Colombia announced a national strike
>beginning from March 23rd, which was to be supported by the guerrilla
>through a series of roadblocks. The guerrilla regularly stages road
>checkpoints throughout the country and often encounters foreigners
>travelling. However, I guess Todd and Peter (that speak fluent Spanish)
>had
>not heard the radio news of US aid and the strike, when on March 23rd
>they
>went up the El Calvario road to seek Grallaria kaestneri. They were
>birding
>along the road beyond km 10 when the 53rd brigade of FARC were returning
>in
>stolen jeeps after staging a 2 hour roadblock on the busy
>Villavicencio-Bogota highway at Monterredondo. They took almost 40
>Colombians hostage, which would be investigate for military/
>paramilitary
>and financial links before being released (most were released last
>week). I
>guess the guerrilla were surprised to find the four US citizens walking
>along the road in the middle of nowhere with binoculars. Birding is not
>the
>rave in Colombia and few people really understand why we do it. Thus,
>sadly, they were kidnapped under suspicion of being US government agents
>or
>assisting paramilitary intelligence.
>
>Basically everything was working against Todd, Louise, Pete and Tom.
>
>Colombia news is dominated by the kidnapping of the four birders. There
>is
>much national sympathy for them, reflected in news, for example their
>support that the birders are certainly not DEA or CIA agents.
>Colombia's
>best-loved comedian Jaime Garzn (highly respected by the guerrilla) is
>negotiating their release. We have much confidence in his success. On
>April 2, Thomas Fiore was released by the FARC and fortunately first met
>with journalists. He was able to say that they are being very well
>treated,
>given plenty of rest, not tided up or gagged, and never threatened. He
>went
>as far as to say "Es bien las Farc" and gave two thumbs up! He was
>airlifted to US embassy and not seen or heard from since. Mike Flieg,
>Liliana Davalos, and myself have publicized the true birding intent of
>Todd,
>Louise, Tom and Pete throughout the Colombian media.
>
>The guerrilla has just acknowledged that Todd and the others are
>definitely
>only considered birders -a decisive step to their future safe release.
>All
>that remains, I hope, is for the government to agree to a special
>de-militarized zone so that the guerrilla can release the remaining
>hostages
>(includes an Italian and several Colombians). Presently the guerrilla
>is
>pinned down to a small area making a release impossible without
>jeopardizing
>the guerrillas escape.
>
>We are now dependent on the Colombian government cooperating for a
>successful and quick release of all the hostages. A similar process was
>successfully negotiated last year in Caquet by the FARC when 53
>soldiers
>were released unharmed in a large de-militarized zone.
>
>Lets hope the Colombian government can cooperate and allow Todd Mark,
>Louise
>Augustine and Peter Shen to be released soon.
>
>On a final note, birding in Colombia by foreigners is only recommended
>after
>the May elections, when typically the situation calms down.
>
>For further information, please contact me directly.
>
>Regards paul salaman
>***************************************************
>Paul G. W. Salaman
>Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology,
>University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
>Tel: +44 (0)1865 271154
>Fax: +44 (0)1865 271168
>Email: paul.salaman at zoo.ox.ac.uk
>For "Colombia '98" expedition up-dates:
>http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/~tmd23/colombia/
>****************************************************
>
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