13/04/2002

Kidnapped Italians released in Colombia

ROME: Two Italian technicians who were kidnapped by Colombian rebels 19 months ago were released Friday, an Italian religious charity announced here.

The Sant'Egidio community in Rome said Claudio Cellario and Pietro Bocchiola were turned over to Italy's ambassador Felice Scauso and a representative of the Catholic charity at Rionegro airport, 40 kilometres from Medellin earlier Friday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross acted as an intermediary for the handover, Sant'Egidio said. The two men had been kidnapped by National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels on September 15, 2000 in the rebel-held Antioquia region of western Colombia.

A third Italian kidnapped at the same time, Gaetano Izzia, was released in November 2001. The Sant'Egidio community said in a statement released here late Friday that the two men had been set free on humanitarian grounds, without preconditions or any ransom payments.

All three men worked for the Milan-based machinery company Carle E Montanari. Nine provincial legislators were kidnapped in the southwestern city of Cali on Thursday, allegedly by FARC guerrillas. Nearly 200,000 people have been killed in Colombia's 38-year civil war, which has pitted leftist FARC and ELN rebels against the government and right-wing paramilitaries (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia or AUC), who are loosely associated with the army. The three rebel groups together control over 40 per cent of the country.