French vow to continue mission to help Betancourt

Ingrid Betancourt: medical team denied access by Farc
Photograph: Reuters

COLOMBIA:  France will try to find another way to help hostage Ingrid Betancourt after it abandoned a mission to send a medical team to the Colombian jungle where she is held, foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said yesterday.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has made it a priority to secure the release of Ms Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen who was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) while campaigning for the Colombian presidency in 2002.

Mr Sarkozy had said Ms Betancourt was seriously ill and close to death. The guerrillas rejected the medical mission on Tuesday and Paris called it off.

"What matters is that we will continue in one way or another and we must find her," Mr Kouchner, who is due to travel to the region soon, told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting.

Ms Betancourt, three Americans and politicians, police and soldiers are among 40 political captives whom the Farc says it wants to exchange for jailed fighters. The guerrillas and the government are deadlocked over a hostage deal.

The French medical mission flew into a Bogotá air base on Thursday to treat Ms Betancourt, who has been in captivity for more than six years. Farc's rejection of the mission meant it had no chance, Mr Kouchner said.

Ms Betancourt is believed to be ill but the exact state of her health is not known. Mr Kouchner said on Monday she may be in better health than was previously thought.

© 2008 Reuters

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times