Women and Conflict

Vienna, (Women's Feature Service) - Colombia's former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, 47, who was rescued after being held captive for nearly seven years by the Colombian leftist rebels, Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), has been named the Woman of the Year by the Vienna-based World Awards Association (WAA). The WAA was established in 2000 by Mikhail Gorbachev and Austria's Georg Kindel to honour exceptional women.

The award recognises Betancourt's resolve to fight for the freedom of all those people who are held hostage against their will. "I was abducted for political reasons but there are so many women still living in captivity for social and economic reasons around the world and many are victims of their own families," she said.

Betancourt was kidnapped in 2002 by FARC and held captive in the jungles of Columbia for nearly seven years. Ever since her release in July this year, she has been tirelessly working to free the other hostages held by the rebels.

Accepting the prism crystal trophy, Betancourt said the award was important as it gave her the platform to talk about her cause and share her vision for the future. "This is one more opportunity for me to say that we should not be silent at the suffering of others," she said.

While in Vienna, Betancourt met with Austrian Natasha Kampusch, 20, who was kidnapped when she was only 10 and held captive for eight years in the basement below her abductor's garage. Unable to hold back her tears, the Colombian also expressed her sympathy for Elisabeth Fritzl. Though Betancourt did not meet Elisabeth, whose father, Josef Fritzl, had imprisoned and sexually abused her for 24 years in the basement of their family home, she said she understood her pain and respected her privacy.

A former senator from one of Columbia's oldest aristocratic families, Betancourt was abducted while she was campaigning for presidency. Six years ago, when she founded the Green Oxygen Party, Betancourt had looked forward to a career in politics. Today, however, she has given up on that ambition because she now believes she will be more useful to her country while living in exile. "No more politics for me. I can help my country better from the outside. It is difficult to be heard in Columbia. Out of Columbia I have a voice," she said.

The former politician-turned-activist also expressed her dislike for the way politics is practiced in her country, "In Columbia politics means lies, treason and selfishness. There is no generosity amongst politicians in Columbia - they encourage only hatred and extremism." Concerned at Columbia's legacy of divisive politics, which has in turn led to a three-decade-long civil conflict and which is now synonymous with drug trafficking, Betancourt dreams of seeing Colombians united. But, for now, she has no plans of living in Colombia as she fears for her safety. "After my release I am considered a runaway. I have been told that they want to get me. I will not return to Columbia before my security is assured. Also, I feel I can talk about the problems of the people of Columbia better from outside the country," she explained.

Despite the fact that Betancourt does not want a seat in the parliament anymore, she wants to continue her work for the betterment of her people - the reason she had joined politics. So, by the end of the year, she plans to launch a foundation that will work for improving the lives of thoseliving in villages near the Colombian jungles. Poor village youth are forced to work for the rebels due to economic compulsions. She recalled that during captivity, when she talked to the young rebels who were guarding her, they told her that the youth took up arms on the assurance that FARC would provide them with food and clothing for life. The rebels fund their war with the money they earn by selling drugs and from the ransom they get in exchange for their kidnapped victims.

Betancourt said her foundation would help the poverty-stricken youth to find alternative sources of livelihood in a country that has been struggling with the drug trade, violence and poverty. The state has not even been able to put an end to the 30-year-old civil war that has swallowed up three generations of Colombians in sectarian violence between the rebels and the paramilitary forces engaged in massacres, kidnappings and extortion.

Although cases of kidnapping are said to have gone down in the recent years, some three million people have been displaced by the conflict. The homeless have ended up in makeshift shacks around the periphery of cities with no guarantee of education, health, home or income.

Asked if it was ever possible for Colombia to gain peace, Betancourt said it was difficult but not impossible. She suggested that the country take the help of regional leaders like Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez to negotiate with the rebels. "We can achieve much more if we act together and if we talk to each other," she said.

She added that her release was in all probability the result of pressure from world leaders like French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Hugo Chavez. If the world had been silent after her abduction she would never have been freed. The rescue of Betancourt, along with 14 other hostages, was a great blow to the rebels who were thus deprived of their most precious bargaining chip.

Betancourt said she is going to take a sabbatical in the new year in order to come to terms with her ordeal. "I need to do this for myself. I will spend time with my mother who was constantly in touch with me throughout my captivity and I hope to write a lot," she said.

But before that she will lead a freedom march on November 28. Though the plans for this are yet to firm up, she felt it was important to raise her voice on behalf of those still living in captivity. "This march is to tell those who are still in captivity like Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi that they are not forgotten. It is also to inspire people around the world to say no to injustice and suffering in the world."

The march is expected to be a worldwide action in the hope that hostages everywhere can feel a little more cheer this Christmas at the thought that there is hope for them to be free like Betancourt one day.