DATE=9/14/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ECUADOR HOSTAGES (S-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-253886
BYLINE=RALPH KURTENBACH
DATELINE=QUITO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Military troops from Ecuador and Colombia
continue combing Ecuador's northeast Amazon region for
12 foreigners abducted on Saturday. Commander of
Colombia's Military Forces, General Fernando Tapias
(TAH pyahs) says that everything points to it as a
kidnapping by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia or FARC. Correspondent Ralph Kurtenbach
reports from Quito.
TEXT: A US citizen and seven Canadian oil workers
were abducted, along with three Spanish tourists and a
Belgian in Ecuador's Sucumbios (soo coohm BEE ohs)
Province. The jungle region is along the Ecuador and
Colombia border, an area in which General Tapias says
the FARC operates. He did not say whether the hostages
were taken into Colombian territory.
So far, neither FARC nor any other group has claimed
responsibility for the abductions, which left one
Ecuadorian soldier dead in a shootout with the armed
captors. Four soldiers had been accompanying the
group.
Ecuador's Interior Minister Vladimiro Alvarez says if
the FARC is responsible, then Colombia's government
must take responsibility.
The kidnappers released an Ecuadorian woman, Sonia
Falcon (fahl KOHN) who claims her captors spoke with a
Colombian accents. She says the kidnappers wore
military fatigues and the armed group included three
women - one as young as 16 years old. (Signed)
NEB/PT
14-Sep-1999 20:53 PM LOC (15-Sep-1999 0053 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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