Colombia violated the Geneva Convention when its military used the Red Cross' symbol to help free 15 hostages from FARC rebels last month,
according to the International Red Cross. The first Geneva Convention prohibits using the Red Cross emblem in military operations because it could compromise the perceived neutrality of the group's humanitarian and medical missions.
The Colombia operatives posed as faux-humanitarian workers, and
video shows that one soldier wore the Red Cross emblem.
According to Variety, so far this has been a "sluggish summer marketplace for film material," so when
15 hostages in Colombia were freed last week, Tinsel Town lit up — and not just out of relief for the hostages. Already there are several book and movie deals in the works about various members of the hostage group.
Most of the clamoring is for the rights to French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt's story.
After the stunning rescue last week of 15 hostages held by
FARC rebels in Colombia, Ingrid Betancourt — the most well-known of those rescued after being held hostage for six years — has urged the end of a vocabulary of hate against her former captors.
She
says:I think we have reached a point where we must change this radical, extremist vocabulary of hate of very strong words that intimately wound the human being.
Though her sympathy for her captors sounds a little
Stockholm Syndrome-y, she says she has no illusions as to the true nature of the group, but that a honey trap of kindness would be a better way to ensure more hostage releases.
