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Bogota: The Colombian government on Friday broadcast videos of kidnapped politician Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans as proof that they were still alive.
The videos were confiscated from three suspected rebels captured in Bogota and included images from October, said Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo.
Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen, and the Americans were captured in a high-profile kidnapping by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2002.
Brief clips of the videos broadcast by local television showed images of Betancourt sitting in jungle surroundings and the Americans.
"All we see is a single photo where she is sitting at a small table and appears fairly thin, with very, very long hair. She is looking down. I had the feeling that her hand was chained. It's a sad image of my sister, but she is alive," Betancourt's sister Astrid told LCI television in France.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the findings were encouraging.
"Now that we know she is alive, we must fight relentlessly to obtain her release and an end to this ordeal as quickly as possible," Sarkozy told reporters in Nice.
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