France’s renewed bid to free Farc hostages

The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, arrived in the Colombian capital, Bogota, on Monday in the latest attempt to negotiate the release of more than 30 hostages being held by that country’s rebel movement Farc.

But Kouchner faces an uphill battle especially after rebel leaders rejected a medical mission sent by Paris earlier this month to treat the most high profile of those captives, Ingrid Betancourt.

The French-Colombian, former senator has been held prisoner by the group since February 2002 when she was kidnapped while campaigning for the Colombian presidency.

She is thought to be in a weak condition, suffering from Hepatitis B and a tropical skin disease.

Any progress on her release or that of any of the other prisoners was dealt a blow last month after Colombian troops killed one of the group’s leaders, Paul Reyes, during an attack in neighbouring Ecuador.

Along with the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, Reyes had been a key player in the group’s agreeing to free six hostages back in January.

Farc has hardened its stance since Reyes was killed and has said there would be no further release of hostages.

Kouchner remained tight lipped after his meeting with the Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe, but he’s known to back a humanitarian proposal that would see an exchange of the hostages for jailed rebels.

The next stop for the French foreign minister will be Ecuador on Tuesday, before flying to the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, to meet Chavez.

Many see the Venezuelan president is seen as the main hope to any real progress in negotiations with the Marxist rebels.

For its part, France has made repeated requests to Farc for the release of Betancourt since the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, came to power last May.

He has twice sent recorded television and radio messages appealing directly to the left-wing movement’s leader, Manuel Marulanda.