Red Cross urges Colombia respect emblem after row
BOGOTA (Reuters) - The International Red Cross on Thursday urged Colombia to respect its emblem after Colombian troops used the agency's symbol during a July rescue where they duped leftist guerrillas into handing over 15 hostages.
Colombian officers posing as members of a fictitious humanitarian organization tricked FARC rebels into surrendering hostages French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt, three Americans and 11 more captives in a huge blow to the guerrillas.
President Alvaro Uribe won praise from Colombians for the rescue, but his government has come under fire after a video leaked to a local television channel revealed officers used the Red Cross symbol from the start of the mission.
The Red Cross had demanded an explanation for an apparent deliberate misuse of its symbol after the video contradicted the government's explanation that an officer pulled on a vest with the symbol at the last minute as he feared for his life.
"What we want to say to the government is that this violation cannot be repeated," International Committee of the Red Cross representative Christophe Beney told reporters.
"All over the world where the ICRC works, unfortunately, there are daily violations of international humanitarian rights," he said.
Falsely using the neutral Red Cross emblem is against the Geneva Conventions as it could put humanitarian workers at risk in war zones.
Beney said the incident was over and would not impede Red Cross work in Colombia, where it carries out humanitarian relief and programs linked to the country's rebel conflict, such as aiding victims displaced by the violence.
The hostage rescue was one of the sharpest blows delivered by Uribe's government to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Latin America's oldest guerrilla force. Under Uribe, violence from the conflict has ebbed sharply as troops retake areas once under the control of armed groups.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta, writing by Patrick Markey in Bogota, editing by Vicki Allen)
