But the real twist came when footage
taken by a cameraman at the rescue showed one of the men from the Colombian
intelligence team wearing a bib bearing the logo of the American Red
Cross. Though Colombian President Alvaro
Uribe claims that the man acted alone and decided to put the shirt on because
he was “nervous,” many pundits find it hard to believe that this wasn’t part of
the plan all along. And if it was, it seems even more questionable that Uribe,
who in the past has accused human rights groups of being little more than
fronts for leftist groups in the country, would exploit the very connection he
had spent so much time attacking.

The truth remains that, regardless of who was responsible
for the Red Cross duds, the scheme is sure to have a huge effect on the
effectiveness and safety of human rights groups working in dangerous areas.
Such groups will undoubtedly have trouble convincing groups like the FARC to
cooperate in the future, weakening their ability to serve as unaligned entities
working for the common good. Furthermore, Red Cross workers in Colombia might be placed at risk if they are identified with one radical group, making
them military targets of the other side. Had the use of the logo in fact been
planned by the government, the country could be guilty of a war crime as
defined by the Geneva Convention, which Colombia signed in 1949.

These new developments go along with the message of a recent
column by Amy
Goodman: “Celebrate the release, not the regime.” While the international
community congratulates the newly freed prisoners, they must realize that the
victory does not erase Colombia’s
horrible human rights record. The new issues raised for nonprofit groups adds
to this record, calling for international attention to the situation of
continuing violence that remains.

More information:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/07/15/colombia.red.cross/inde...

http://philanthropy.com/giveandtake/article/658/will-colombias-hostage-r...