September 16, 2003	Tuesday	Rajab 18, 1424

BOGOTA, Sept 15: Leftist rebels have kidnapped eight foreign tourists — four Israelis, two Britons, a Spaniard and a German — who had been camping near the Sierra Nevada mountains in northern Colombia, police said on Sunday.

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels are believed to have seized the eight from a group of 16 people late Saturday who were staying in the Tayrona on the Caribbean coast, said police operations chief General Luis Alfredo Rodriguez.

“The kidnappers, presumably from the FARC, selected the group and took the foreign tourists,” he said.

Rodriguez said that a FARC commando unit had led the eight up towards the 6,000-meter snow-flanked Sierra Nevada.

“We believe that they took them to the upper part of the mountains, where we know that there are also several paramilitary squadrons” belonging to extreme right-wing Self-Defence Units of Colombia, Rodriguez told reporters.

Army First Division troops, based in the city of Santa Marta, 955 kilometres north of Bogota, capital of Magdalena province, jointly with regional police launched search operations on the mountain.

“We are engaged in intense military operations in the region, mainly in a wide area of the Tayrona park and in parts of the Sierra Nevada where the terrorists often hide their hostages,” said First Division commander General Leonel Gomez.

Latin America’s biggest guerrilla group, which has 17,000 fighters, is currently holding 21 politicians hostage, including ex-presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

The latest abductions come as Colombia’s high commissioner for peace Luis Carlos Restrepo called on Tuesday on the FARC to agree to the International Committee of the Red Cross visiting its hostages.

The unprecedented request from Restrepo was for the Red Cross to “verify the state of health” of the hostages, and to look at “possibly freeing” the sick.

The move was the first time the government has indicated it might give preference in a possible hostage for rebel prisoner swap to those among the kidnapped who are sick.

So far, FARC has given no response to Restrepo’s request, but the rebel group has issued videos showing hostages that are alive, including Betancourt.—AFP