Briton kidnapped in Colombia 'will be released' in a few weeks
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Your support makes all the difference.The mother of a Briton held by Colombian guerrillasspoke of her relief yesterday after hearing that he might be freed in the next few weeks.
Mark Henderson, 31, a television producer, is one of seven captives due to be released.
Mr Henderson's mother, Sharelle, said yesterday at her home in Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire: "It's the best news we have heard for a long time. We are just waiting to hear some more details but it does seem to offer a lot of hope. We just want to see Mark back on British soil."
The National Liberation Army (ELN) kidnapped Mr Henderson and another Briton, Matthew Scott, along with four Israelis, a German and a Spaniard, when they were hiking in the Sierra Nevada mountains on 12 September. Mr Scott, 19, from Clapham, south London, escaped after 10 days by jumping down a ravine.
In return for freeing the hostages, the ELN wants a humanitarian commission to visit the mountains to investigate the plight of impoverished inhabitants. The demand is a significant scaling down of the terms set down duringprevious negotiations, when the ELN demanded that the prisoners be exchanged for foreign "political witnesses". This was rejected by the Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe.
The groupwants a UN representative, mediators from the Catholic Church and Francisco Galan, the imprisoned ELN leader, to be present at the handover, according to Monsignor Alberto Giraldo, a mediator from the Catholic Church who has been negotiating with the rebels. Mgr Giraldo was to meet British embassy officials yesterday in the Colombian capital, Bogota, to discuss the release plans. The ELN claimed that it seized the tourists to raise awareness of the suffering of the mainly Indian inhabitants of the region.
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