Just now being reported on the BBC ticker tape. Columbian rebels have them. No further at this time.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

Answers

BBC Tuesday, 17 April, 2001, 08:40 GMT 09:40 UK

Colombia oil workers freed

Left-wing rebels in Colombia have released more than 70 employees of the US oil company Occidental Petroleum a few hours after kidnapping them.

An army spokesperson said the released workers were all in good health. At least 12 others are still being held by the rebels.

The release came after the army launched a hot pursuit operation, the official said.

Earlier, military officials said a convoy of eight vehicles had been intercepted by rebels from the National Liberation Army - the ELN - in the east of the country.

The incident happened about 16 kilometres (10 miles) outside the state capital, Arauca.

The Colombian employees were on their way home by bus from the Cano Limon oilfield, Colombia's second-largest field, the Associated Press news agency reported.

The ELN has carried out mass abductions before to raise ransoms and to force concessions from the government.

The Cano Limon field, operated jointly by Occidental and Colombia's Ecopetrol state oil company, has been inactive since February following more than 60 pipeline bombings this year.

Mass kidnappings

The ELN, Colombia's second-largest rebel army, has a tradition of mass kidnapping operations.

In 1999 ELN guerrillas hijacked a domestic airliner, forcing it to land on a remote jungle airstrip and kidnapping the passengers and crew.

A few months later, ELN rebels burst into a Sunday church service in Cali, kidnapping the entire congregation and the priest - 150 people in all.

Last year they emptied an upmarket restaurant outside Cali and set out roadblocks nearby, netting some 80 people.

Safe haven

Marxist rebels earn much of their income from kidnapping for ransom and were responsible for the vast majority of abductions last year - more than 3,700.

The ELN has long targeted the oil industry, believing that foreign oil companies are pillaging Colombia's natural resources.

The BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Colombia says the latest ELN kidnapping is believed to be linked with the group's drive for the government to grant it a safe haven, so that it can begin a peace process.

For more than two years the government has been dragging its heels, preferring to deal with a larger group - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

I don't think this tactic would work in the US. Do you?

Too many people who have guns, not to mention cell phones.

Ahh, freedom. I miss it.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001