Freed Dutch newsmen say Colombia rebel group treated them well
Two Dutch journalists freed by a Colombian rebel group after days in captivity said they are in good health and made "a big mistake" when they entered a conflict zone, local media reported Saturday. "We have a few minor injuries from trees that cut our arms and legs, but physically and psychologically we're in pretty good shape," reporter Derk Johannes Bolt told Caracol Radio. Bolt, 62, and cameraman Eugenio Ernest Marie Follender, 58, were abducted Monday by guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in the troubled Catatumbo region of northeastern Colombia. Early Saturday the ELN, the only active rebel group remaining in the country, turned the two men over to a humanitarian commission that had helped organize their release. "At first we thought it was a robbery," said Bolt, "because they told us to hand over the camera." But the men soon realized they were being abducted. "It was very hard," he added, "but the people who captured us were very friendly and treated us with great respect." The journalists work for Spoorloos, a program on Kro-Ncrv TV that helps Dutch people trace their biological relatives around the world. Bolt said that entering Catatumbo, near the border with Venezuela, to work on an episode of the program had been "a big mistake." No one had warned the two that the region was unsafe, he said. "No one said, 'Do not go in.' ... We never thought it could happen to us, but it was a lesson learned." Bolt said the men were kept in houses the first few days, then moved into the jungle because army troops were nearby. Dutch authorities said they are working to quickly repatriate the journalists. The Colombian government of Juan Manuel Santo has been negotiating with the ELN, which has about 1,500 fighters, since February in Quito, Ecuador, in an effort to end a half-century of armed conflict. Late last year the government reached a peace accord with the country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
