Colombia's leftist FARC rebels have agreed to release French journalist Romeo Langlois they had seized late last month in the south of the country, if certain conditions are met, local media reported late on Sunday.
The rebels have reportedly agreed to hand over Langlois to a group inclusive of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) officials and an envoy of French President-elect Francois Hollande. The FARC has also demanded the involvement of Colombian mediator Piedad Cordoba, who has already mediated the release of numerous hostages held by the outlaws.
Langlois of TV channel France 24 went missing while filming an anti-cocaine operation being carried out by Colombian security forces in the country's south on April 29. He was reportedly wearing a bullet-proof vest and a helmet issued by the military when he disappeared.
Colombian troops said later that Langlois appeared to be injured in a gunfight that broke out with the rebels during a raid to destroy cocaine laboratories. Subsequently, the FARC confirmed that it had abducted the missing journalist and was holding him as a prisoner of war.
Experts believe that the FARC's offer to free Langlois was prompted by the outrage triggered inside Colombia over the journalist's abduction as well as the international condemnation sparked by his seizure by the rebels.
FARC has been fighting the Colombian government for almost five decades in what is said to be Latin America's longest-running insurgency. The rebels seek to impose a leftist regime in the country, which they believe would redistribute land more equitably among its impoverished population.
FARC has been accused in the past of using money generated from smuggling cocaine to fund their insurgency. Its fighters still carry out attacks on Colombian security forces and other targets despite tough security measures enforced by former President Alvaro Uribe, who completed his term in office last August.
The strong anti-militant policies and related military operations initiated by Uribe since he first took office in 2002 had put the rebel group on the defensive. But there has been an escalation in FARC attacks in recent months despite a series of successes for the Colombian government in its campaign against the rebel group in recent years.
Current Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos had earlier rejected a FARC offer to begin peace talks, insisting that such negotiations would be possible only if the rebels renounced violence and released all hostages.
In an effort to show its commitment to future peace talks with the government, FARC recently released the last remaining ten security personnel held hostage and pledged to abandon kidnappings for money. But the group is still said to be holding hundreds of civilian hostages.
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