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France ready to fly out Colombian hostage amid health fears
PARIS
Petroleumworld.com, Mar 31, 2008
President Nicolas Sarkozy has placed a plane and medical team on standby in French Guiana to help French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt if she is freed by Colombian rebels, his office said Sunday.
The French army Falcon 900 plane landed Friday night at an airport near Cayenne and is waiting at the nearby military base, according to an airport source.
"Information concerning Ingrid Betancourt's state of health and statements about possible negotiations for her release led the president to decide, as a precautionary measure and so that she may quickly receive the appropriate care and be taken as soon as possible to hospital if she is freed, to pre-position a plane and medical team in Guiana, which is ready to intervene at any moment," said the presidential press service in a statement.
Betancourt, a Colombian former presidential candidate and senator who has been held by guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC) since 2002, is reportedly very ill.
Her former husband Fabrice Delloye told AFP that he feared she was "either dying or already dead."
"What worries me most is the latest statement by the Colombian government, and I wonder if they have information that we do not have and are in the process of shielding themselves."
Colombia's independent public ombudsman, Volmar Perez, earlier said that reports indicated that "the state of her health is very delicate, and her physical and health conditions have been deteriorating."
He said that, according to residents in an area where Betancourt was taken by her captors to be treated, the high-profile hostage was suffering from hepatitis B and leishmania, a skin disease caused by insect bites.
Betancourt is among 39 high-profile hostages, including three US defence contractors, whom the FARC wants to exchange for 500 rebels held in prison.
Direct talks to negotiate the prisoner swap have never begun, although the rebels unilaterally released six hostages to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez earlier this year.
Story from AFP
AFP 30 1036 GMT 03 08
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