Senegal in Bid to Free Colombia Hostages

[magbana]

Senegal in bid to free Colombia hostages
Published: Saturday 05 April 2008 12:38 UTC
Last updated: Saturday 05 April 2008 14:13 UTC
Dakar - Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade says he wants to create an international commission to free the hostages held by Colombia's FARC rebels. President Wade, who heads the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, says it is important that Islamic and African nations contribute to a solution for the decade-old conflict in Colombia. He called it a worldwide problem that should concern everybody.

On Friday, tens of thousands of Colombians demonstrated across the country against hostage-taking. An estimated 3,000 people have been kidnapped by left-wing rebels, right-wing paramilitary groups and other armed gangs.

The most prominent hostage is the seriously ill French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt. She was kidnapped by FARC rebels while campaigning for the presidency six years ago. A French medical team arrived in Colombia earlier this week in an attempt to help Ms Betancourt but has not yet been allowed to see her.

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/5720319/Senegal-in-bid-to-free-Colombia-hostages

http://snipurl.com/23k39

[magbana]

1. France's Surrogate Wants to Help Resolve FARC Hostage Issue?

Gee, if Adoulaye Wade wants to create an international commission I wish he would focus on why France participated in the coup to get rid of Aristide. This way he might be of some help to his brothers and sisters in Haiti..

Back in 1825 after Haitian slaves beat the hell out of Napoleon's army the French offered Haiti a terrific deal -- the French would promise never to invade Haiti again if the Haitians paid them reparations for their lost property (yes, slaves) . The Haitians agreed knowing it was highway robbery, but understanding anything was better than the return of the French. Haiti had to close its public schools in order to have the money to make the first payment. Haiti did not finish paying the reparations until 1947!!

When Aristide was elected, he said it was time that France paid back the "ransom" France had extracted. Aristide estimated that the amount France owed Haiti in today's money was in the neighborhood of $22 BILLION. Aristide had his government attorney file a case in French courts and the case was going surprisingly well. In the latter part of 2003, Dominique de Villepin's sister was sent to Haiti to urge Aristide to step down. Aristide flatly refused. No wonder France was glad to help the US and Canada implement the coup. When the de facto PM Gerard Latortue was selected by the US to rule Haiti after Aristide was kidnapped, the first thing Latortue did was withdraw the case from French courts.

[Judi Lynn]

2. I never learned enough to understand how it was Haiti ended up paying France so much money,

and, I had absolutely NO IDEA Aristide was in the process of correcting that error.

We watched in horror when France and Canada BOTH stepped in to support vicious, homicidal _Bush maneuvers in getting those death squads busy on Haiti's population, dishonestly overturning the will of the Haitian people. It seemed impossible two countries I had so much respect for would inexplicably throw ALL decency to the wind and support a P.O.S. like _{George W. Bush.} (You saw how he repaid France's support of his slaughter of Haitians when they balked on Iraq and the administration started heaving insults at them)

I knew Aristide was attempting to break the chains of dependency on international lending organizations, to get more humanitarian wages for the workers, to seek real independence, I had no idea he had been working on reversing the evil blackmail by France in exchange for "protection" from its worst brutality. I do know I have NEVER seen someone drug through the mud that way, with lies and twisted truths fed to the idiot chorus of rabid right-wing lunatics infesting the internet, with the exception of a few other Latin American and Caribbean ELECTED Presidents.



Igor
These media Igors shovel it out to our right-wingers who inhale it without chewing. They turn INSTANTLY to foaming-at-the-mouth, unquestioning, unthinking mad dogs staggering through the internet looking for any place they can start unloading their bellyful of absurdities handed out to them by propagandists through the auspices of the asskissing Igors.

You've set the record straight, and allowed some new light in on the subject, to allow a clearer picture. It's not a prety one, is it?

Decent people would be heart sick over this.

Now it's much easier to see how Senegal enters the conversation. What a shame. I'll bet the people of Senagal have a much different opinion, too.