Abducted Dutch journalists' release expected soon: report
Derk Bolt and Eugenio Follender will be released soon, according to Richard Claro, a member of a humanitarian commission especially appointed for the two Dutch journalists who were abducted in Colombia over the weekend, ANP reports.
Claro confirmed that Bolt and Follender were taken by Colombian left-wing guerilla movement ELN. "They were detained in the village of Versalles, municipality Tibu on Saturday", he said in an interview with the Colombian Caracol Radio. The two Dutch men are "doing well".
Claro also said that Bolt and Follender's release was successfully negotiated and they are expected to be set free during the course of Wednesday.
According to the radio station, the Dutch men's release is complicated by the fact that there are many soldiers in the area. "We are working on a reduction of operations to facilitate the release of the foreigners", a military source said to Caracol.
Bolt and Follender were taken while working on television program Spoorloos, a show about finding lost relatives. Bolt is the show's host and Follender his cameraman. They were looking for the biological mother of a girl adopted from the country by Dutch parents.
The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs said little about the the journalists' abduction. " All attention can damage the case and endanger their safety. Often radio silence is the best approach in abduction cases like these", a spokesperson said to AD on Tuesday. She added that the matter has the Ministry's full attention.
