SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS AGAIN FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF ALAN JARA

ON SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF KIDNAPPING IN COLOMBIA

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

On the second anniversary of the kidnapping of Alan Jara, former governor of the Department of Meta, from a United Nations vehicle in Colombia, the Secretary-General again calls on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to immediately release Mr. Jara.  The FARC is responsible for Mr. Jara’s physical well-being and should provide proof that he is alive to his family, which has wrongly suffered his forced absence.

The Secretary-General urgently appeals to the FARC and others to release all those kidnapped and to stop this inhumane practice.  It is a gross violation of human rights and international humanitarian law that has inflicted terrible suffering on the Colombian people.

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