Colombians protest rebel hostage-takings

Thousands of Colombians joined demonstrations demanding that the country's oldest leftist guerrilla group, the FARC, free all its hostages, ten days after rebels murdered four men who had been held for more than a decade. The FARC responded with a promise, posted on its webpage, to release hostages, but without saying who it might release or when. Protesters earlier marched in Bogota, Cali, Medellin and several other cities across the Andean nation, chanting, "Freedom, freedom, freedom." "No more FARC," others shouted, using the Spanish acronym for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which has waged a 47-year guerrilla war against the state. But there were others in the crowds who also called on the military not to put hostages' lives in danger with risky rescue attempts. The protesters, wearing T-shirts with slogans demanding the release of rebel hostages and brandishing signs against the guerrilla group, began marching early in the day. The demonstrations were organized by civic groups with the support of the government, which gave public employees time off to participate and had openly called on Colombians to join the protests. "We want to live in a country at peace, a country without kidnappings or violence," President Juan Manuel Santos said in an address in the little town of Villeta in the central department of Cundinamarca. "No one should stay at home, no one should stay in their offices, because we are all going to march with a single purpose, a purpose that unites us all: to say 'yes' to liberty and 'no' to kidnapping," he said at an event late Monday, according to a presidential statement. Founded in 1964, the FARC is holding at least 11 police and soldiers hostages with the goal of trading them for several hundred imprisoned guerrillas. They also are holding an unknown number of civilians for ransom. The marches were held 10 days after the assassination of four captives -- three policemen and a soldier -- who had been held hostage for more than 12 years. Among them was the FARC's longest-held hostage, Jose Libio Martinez, who was kidnapped December 21, 1997. The four were shot to death by their guards when their jungle camp came under attack, the authorities have said. Another hostage was able to escape amid the confusion. In its statement, the FARC promised to arrange "the unilateral liberation of the prisoners of war that we announced in earlier missives, even though some of them fell in the senseless military rescue attempt." "We are sick of them, of their crimes," said Lia Velazquez, an official with the Antioquia regional government. "The FARC no longer has an ideology, they are only narcoterrorists." Colombia's chief of police, General Oscar Naranjo, insisted that the protests are a major concern for the FARC, which has suffered the losses of key leaders in recent years. "It generates tremendous concern, real anguish, for them to see Colombians pressuring them and rejecting their terrorist methods," he said. But with an estimated 8,000 fighters, the FARC remains entrenched in large parts of the country, and even protest organizers said they doubted the day of demonstrations would have an immediate impact on the group.