\n The anguish did not end with her liberation from the clutches of FARC guerillas 13 years ago, says Ingrid Betancourt, held hostage in a South American jungle for more than half a decade at the height of Colombia's decades-long conflict.\n<\/p>\n
\n Back in her country of birth to confront her captors in an historic session of Colombia's Truth Commission, the Franco-Colombian politician tells AFP of the agony that accompanies every separation from her family to this day.\n<\/p>\n
\n While she is happy for her captors to avoid jail in exchange for sharing the full truth of their deeds, Betancourt hopes her tormentors will be given an \"exemplary\" sentence.\n<\/p>\n
\n Here are excerpts of what she told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n - What has been the most difficult after-effect of your captivity?\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The suffering of my children; it is a permanent pain. Any time there is tension in the family, the pain of the kidnapping resurges, the impossibility to fill the void of that time and distance.\n<\/p>\n
\n Every time we separate, that someone takes a plane or we plan a trip, there is an anguish of separation because in one trip I did not return. And this is something that for them is still a very raw experience.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n - What punishment are you hoping for?\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I, like all my fellow hostages and FARC victims, want this process to lead to peace without impunity.\n<\/p>\n
\n We accept that they do not go to jail if they tell the whole truth. That is a commitment we have made, but within the powers of the peace tribunal to issue sentences, there is scope for sentences with a loss of liberty.\n<\/p>\n
\n I think it is important that we have exemplary sentences and it is not with a vengeful spirit at all. I don't want them to go to jail, I don't care, it won't change anything to my life. What will change my life is to feel that Colombians stop trivializing violence.\n<\/p>\n
\n I think it has to be a sentence of loss of liberty. Not in jail, but with mobility restrictions in their homes... that they feel restricted in their lives because of what they did.\n<\/p>\n
\n To me, honestly, when they say there will be reparative sentences, what, are they going to plant trees? No, no thank you. Gardening for what they did to us? No.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n - How do you feel about your captors today?\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I believe that they have started on a path, which I want to recognize, of leaving behind that dynamic in which they thought: 'we were fighting for the people and what we did, we did it because we had a just ideology.'\n<\/p>\n
\n But it is clear that... what they did to us is not allowed, it is a war crime and a crime against humanity.\n<\/p>\n
\n I think it is something they still have a hard time processing, but at least they want to recognize it.\n<\/p>\n
\n I think they have difficulty in expressing emotion and that is a difficulty I think is linked to their experience as warriors ... I have seen that their emotions are still totally frozen.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Betancourt was captured in 2002 while campaigning for Colombia's presidency, and rescued in a military operation six-and-a-half years later, in 2008. She was chained for much of her captivity after she tried to escape.\n<\/p>\n
\n While being held hostage Betancourt missed her father's death, as well as crucial years in the young lives of her children. She now spends her time between Britain and France.\n<\/p>\n
\n The FARC has been disarmed and disbanded under a 2016 peace pact that ended Colombia's internal war, and has since converted itself into a political party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The anguish did not end with her liberation from the clutches of FARC guerillas 13 years ago, says Ingrid Betancourt, held hostage in a South American jungle for more than half a decade at the height of Colombia's decades-long conflict. Back in her country of birth to confront her captors in an historic session of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-79195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n