Colombia's Farc rebels have freed what it says were its last 10 soldier and police hostages as the weakened group seeks peace talks with the government.
The captives had been held in jungle prisons for at least 12 years.
They were flown to the eastern city of Villavicencio on a military helicopter and were seen waving delightedly as they landed.
Some wore the Colombian flag over their shoulders as they met waiting relatives.
"I shouted! I jumped up and down!" said Olivia Solarte, describing the moment she heard her 41-year-old police officer son had been freed.
Farc - or The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - announced in February it would release the hostages, its last remaining "prisoners of war", as it pledged to stop ransom kidnappings.
President Juan Manuel Santos had no immediate comment on the latest releases, but has previously said he wants proof Farc, which took up arms in 1964, is sincere about ceasing hostilities before he agrees to peace dialogue.
Recent weeks have seen renewed violence. Farc killed at least 11 soldiers in a mid-March attack near the Venezuelan border and the military responded with two precision bombings on rebel camps that killed more than 60 insurgents.
There are estimates that at least 400 civilians who have been kidnapped since 1996 have never been freed by Farc .
In the 1990s the group, which is estimated to have 9,000 fighters, or by criminal gangs that sold the abducted to the rebels, helped make Colombia the world's kidnapping capital.
Among their most high-profile victims was Ingrid Betancourt, a Colombian politician, anti-corruption activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee who was kidnapped in 2002 and rescued more than six years later by Colombian security forces.
Source:http://uk.news.yahoo.com/farc-rebels-free-colombian-prisoners-war-011718239.html
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Monday, April 2, 2012
Farc Rebels Free Colombian 'Prisoners Of War'
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