2 Dutch journalists freed unharmed by Colombian rebels

Associated Press

Saturday, June 24, 2017 | 6:31 a.m.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Two Dutch journalists have been freed unharmed after being held captive for almost a week by leftist rebels in Colombia, the Dutch foreign minister said Saturday. One of the journalists said they were treated well but conditions in the jungle are difficult in any case.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said Derk Bolt and Eugenio Follender "are doing relatively well under the circumstances." He said he spoke by phone to the journalists shortly after their release.

"Bolt was ... very relieved. They have a long journey through the jungle ahead of them. We are doing all we can to bring them back to the Netherlands as soon as possible," he said in a statement.

Bolt and Follender were seized almost a week ago by members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) while reporting in the volatile Catatumbo region near Colombia's border with Venezuela.

In an interview with Colombia's Caracol radio, Bolt said the two men were treated well by their captors, suffering only a few scratches from long, 14-hour marches to evade security forces who had mounted a massive search.

He said they were first stopped the reporters thought it was a robbery, as their captors demanded they turn over their cameras. Then they were shuttled from safe house to safe house before eventually taking refuge in the jungle.

"It was very hard, but the people who took us captive were very warm and treated us with lots of respect, almost like friends," Bolt told Caracol. "They always told us our lives weren't in danger."

Bolt is host of a Dutch television show called Spoorloos (Without a Trace) and Follender is a cameraman for the show, which attempts to help people find their long-lost relatives.

"We are incredibly happy and relieved," the show said in a Facebook post. "We are grateful to the ministry of foreign affairs. They have done everything, in The Hague and Bogota, to get Derk and Eugenio home safely."

The ELN, Colombia's last major guerrilla army with about 1,500 troops, said the journalists were detained preventively because they had entered a conflict zone where Colombia's military often operates covertly.

"Our first duty is the preserve the life of the communities and people that enter these territories, not exposing them" to danger, members of the group negotiating a peace deal with the government said.