* Five cocaine labs destroyed
* Troops killed in attack
* France and Colombia working together
(Adds kidnapping comment from French foreign minister)
By Helen Murphy and Luis Jaime Acosta
BOGOTA, April 29 (Reuters) – A French journalist reporting
alongside Colombian security forces tracking drug-funded rebels
disappeared on Saturday after a gun battle with the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that killed three
soldiers and a police official, the Defense Ministry said.
Romeo Langlois, a freelance reporter for French news channel
France 24, went missing after being caught in a firefight with
the rebels, known as the FARC. The fight broke out as police and
military personnel sought to dismantle drug laboratories in the
jungles of Caqueta in southern Colombia.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Sunday that
Langlois was kidnapped by the FARC, his spokesman said.
“The crisis center (of the Foreign Ministry) has been
mobilized and is liaising with Colombian authorities,” Juppe
told French media.
Colombia’s Defense Ministry, which was to hold a press
conference Sunday, had not confirmed his capture.
Langlois’s disappearance will refocus attention on the FARC
after its release this month of 10 members of the armed forces
held hostage in jungle camps for more than a decade.
The insurgent group, which has battled the government for
almost 50 years, has made repeated gestures toward peace in
recent months as a U.S.-backed offensive batters its front
lines, halving its fighting force and killing top commanders.
President Juan Manuel Santos has said he remains open to
peace talks only if they cease all attacks against civilian and
military targets and stop kidnapping. The group’s leadership has
pledged to stop taking hostages for ransom.
Three soldiers and one police official died in Saturday’s
attack, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Five members
of the counter-narcotics patrol originally were reported missing
with Langlois but were found alive.
No FARC fighters were reported killed or captured.
France 24 is working with the French Foreign Ministry and
Colombian authorities to “obtain more information about the
journalist’s whereabouts,” France 24 said in a statement.
“We know that it is a dangerous region,” Nahida Nakad, head
of its foreign audiovisual editorial operations, said in the
statement. “We are of course concerned but we trust Romeo, who
knows the region well and has a lot of experience.
“We hope that he is safe and sound. We are in permanent
contact with his family. The whole editorial department of
France 24 is worried and has the family in their hearts.”
The FARC, involved in the production of much of the world’s
cocaine, operates across Colombia but is strong in the south,
where the soil and humidity are perfect for cultivation of coca,
the raw material for cocaine.
Saturday’s raid resulted in the destruction of five labs with
weekly capacity to produce 400 kilos of coca paste, which is
turned into cocaine.
The FARC, which has kidnapped thousands of civilians over
the decades to help pay for weapons, food and uniforms, is
classified as a terrorist group by the United States and the
European Union.
(Additional reporting by Daniel Flynn and Sophie Loet in Paris;
Editing by Bill Trott)
