Obama has begun discreet talks with Iran, Syria

by Sylvie Lanteaume

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama has already used experts within the last few months to hold high-level but discreet talks with both Iran and Syria, organizers of the meetings told AFP.

Officially, Obama's overtures toward both Tehran and Damascus have remained limited.

In an interview broadcast Monday, Obama said the United States would offer arch-foe Iran an extended hand of diplomacy if the Islamic Republic's leaders "unclenched their fist."

Meanwhile, his secretary of state Hillary Clinton warned that the Israeli-Syrian track of the Middle East peace negotiations took a back seat to the Israeli-Palestinian track, especially because of the recent war in Gaza.

However, even before winning the November 4 election, Obama unofficially used what experts call "track two" discussions to approach America's two foes in the region.

Nuclear non-proliferation experts had several "very, very high-level" contacts in the last few months with Iranian leaders, said Jeffrey Boutwell, executive director for the US branch of the Pugwash group, an international organization of scientists which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.

Former defense secretary William Perry, who served in Obama's election campaign, participated in some of these meetings focused on "a wide range of issues that separate Iran from the West: not only their nuclear program but the Middle East peace process, Persian Gulf issues," Boutwell told AFP.

The Pugwash official declined to name the other participants, except to say they had considerable clout.

"We had very, very senior figures from both the Iranian policy establishment and from the US; people who have very close, good access to the top leaders in both countries," Boutwell said.

"The Cable," the blog of the specialist magazine Foreign Policy, said Iran's permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA), Ali Asghar Soltanieh, was "among the Iranian officials who attended the Pugwash dialogues."

Meanwhile, a group of experts under the auspices of the think tank, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), announced Thursday that they met for more than two hours in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The experts included Ellen Laipson, a former White House adviser under president Bill Clinton and a member of the Obama transition team.

Assad struck positive notes, the participants in the meeting said during a press conference at the Washington headquarters of USIP, a bipartisan think tank financed by Congress.

"His phrasing was 70 percent of our interests are potentially shared and 30 percent are not. And he said: let's work on the 70 percent," said Bruce Jentleson, who was the disarmament adviser to former vice president Al Gore.

The Syrian president himself revealed on Monday that "dialogue started some weeks ago in a serious manner through personalities who are close to the administration and who were dispatched by the administration."

The United States accuses Syria of supporting "terrorist" groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, of destabilizing Lebanon and of allowing armed men to transit its territory to fight US-led forces in Iraq.

Washington and Tehran, which have had no diplomatic ties for nearly 30 years, differ sharply over Iran's nuclear program. Washington charges the program is a covert military one, but Tehran says it is for nuclear energy.

Al-Qaeda Figure Surrenders In Algeria - Reports

ALGIERS (AFP)--A leading member of Al-Qaeda's North African branch has surrendered to Algerian authorities, several newspapers reported Sunday, citing security sources.

Ali Ben Touati, said to be a key leader of the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, gave himself up in Yakouren in the Tizi Ouzou region east of the capital Algiers, the El Watan and Algerie News newspapers said.

According to the reports Ben Touati, also known as Abou Tamime, said he was responding to a recent appeal by one of the leading Islamist militants in Algeria, Hassan Hattab.

Hattab called on militants to end their armed campaign in a message earlier this month in which he urged his followers to take advantage of a government amnesty.

The North African country, wracked by more than a decade of Islamist violence, adopted a national reconciliation charter offering the amnesty in a 2006 referendum.

Hattab was a founder member of the feared militant group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, which aligned itself with Osama Bin Laden's network in 2007 to become the AQIM.

"I advise you to stop what you are doing and rejoin society and your families, " he wrote in the Jan. 18 message, adding that he condemned the organization's repeated acts of violence "which serve neither Islam nor Muslims."

Al-Qaeda's North African offshoot has claimed responsibility for a wave of suicide attacks that rocket Algeria in August killing more than 50 people.

In June, the group claimed several attacks that killed 37 soldiers.

US turned blind eye to Somalia abuses: rights group

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – The United States has turned a blind eye to abuses by its allies in Somalia and worsened the situation there by reducing a complex conflict to a front in its "war on terror," a leading human rights group said.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said in a letter to African Union Commission chairman Jean Ping that the policies of many governments had been destructive in Somalia.

"U.S. policy on Somalia has been particularly unhelpful, treating Somalia's complex realities as a theater in the 'war on terror' while turning a blind eye to rampant abuses by the Ethiopian and transitional government forces," HRW said in the letter that was handed to reporters at an AU summit on Sunday.

The letter was sent to Ping late last month.

U.S. ally Ethiopia sent its army into Somalia to topple an Islamist administration in Mogadishu and rescue the Western-backed transitional government at the end of 2006.

At least 10,000 civilians were killed in an ensuing Iraq-style insurgency that also created more than a million refugees and fomented piracy in shipping lanes off the coast.

The Ethiopians withdrew last month and Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a moderate Islamist who led the sharia courts government overthrown by them, was elected on Saturday as Somali president, raising hopes that a way can be found out of the conflict that has torn Somalia for 18 years.

Ahmed has made positive noises toward the new U.S. administration of President Barack Obama, saying Washington's policy toward Somalia was positive and honest.

"America has become a force which supports peace," he told an Egyptian newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.

Human Rights Watch said all sides in the conflict over the last two years had committed war crimes and human rights abuses.

It accused Europe of sending aid to Somali police without insisting on accountability for serious crimes and said Eritrea had provided arms to fighters in Somalia as part of a proxy war against Ethiopia.

HRW called on the AU, whose leaders are meeting until Tuesday in the Ethiopian capital, to ask the U.N. Security Council to establish a commission of inquiry into rights abuses in Somalia.

Stop Israel Now! I Challenge You, President Obama

by Professor Fandel

IF NOT NOW, WHEN?

But ... Olmert announced in Al Jazeera today, February 1, 2009, that Israel will respond to Palestinians' defensive rocket attacks in a ferociously "disproportionate" way. With this outrageously disdainful announcement comes a clearer "sign": that there will never be peace if the Israelis are allowed to continue in this war-mongering, inhumane way.

Rapid action for egregious crimes against humanity, perpetrated by the government of Israel, must take place NOW.

Whenever there is one or more among us who feels that he/she is better than "the other," there will be hatred, there will be war, there will be violent and careless human waste. The government of Israel is that "one" among many at this point in human history. So...

I challenge you, President Obama.

The government of Israel continues to fuel the flame of enormous dishonor and hatred of humanity. The US and other countries MUST not give one more dime to Israel. And they MUST hold them accountable, just as the US and the rest of the World should be holding accountable the criminal administration of George W. Bush. Yes, the Bush government committed the same atrocities against "the other" and greased the palm of Israel in the process.

I challenge you, President Obama.

You are a good man who has, in 10+ days in office, made a near seamlessly positive impact on a country drowning in the quicksand-hubris and dung of the Bush administration: you have thrown the US lifelines, the likes of which we haven't seen since FDR.

I challenge you, President Obama.

Cut off ALL monetary and diplomatic aid to Israel, LISTEN carefully to the American Jews and others who have shouted loud and clear in protest of the Israeli government, who have chained themselves to the Israeli Embassy in LA and elsewhere in fervent honor of one thing: peaceful co-existence.

I challenge you, President Obama.

Do the right thing, the humane thing. It truly IS in your hands. If you can just imagine peace and work for this peace, we will live in peace.

Yes, YOU can ... and MUST stop Israel NOW, President Obama, for this is the fiercest urgency of NOW that you will ever face.

Abbas lashes out at Hamas rivals ahead of Gaza talks

by Samer al-Atrush

CAIRO (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas lashed out at his Hamas rivals on Sunday, as officials from Palestinian groups gathered in Cairo amid hopes of bolstering a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Abbas, at a news conference in Cairo where he was to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday, accused the Islamist movement Hamas of putting Palestinian lives and their hopes for statehood in peril.

Egypt has been mediating a truce after Hamas and Israel announced ceasefires on January 18, ending a devastating 22-day war that killed more than 1,330 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

"They ... have taken risks with the blood of Palestinians, with their fate, and dreams and aspirations for an independent Palestinian state," Abbas charged after visiting wounded Palestinians.

Abbas also accused Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since routing Fatah forces loyal to him in 2007, of trying to smash the Palestine Liberation Organization and said he rejected talks with any group which did not recognize the PLO.

Khaled Meshaal who heads Hamas's politburo from exile in Damascus said earlier in the week that the PLO had become obsolete and called for "a new, national authority."

His comments were not supported by Hamas-allied militants, who said the PLO should be reformed rather than replaced.

Hamas is not a member of the Palestinian umbrella group, which Egypt founded in 1964 and which Fatah took over in 1968.

"Today they emerge upon us with a destructive project, which we have heard before ... and which has gone to the rubbish bin of history," said Abbas, the Western-backed president of the Palestinian Authority.

"They must admit clearly ... that the PLO is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and after that (there can be) dialogue."

A Hamas delegation is due in Cairo on Monday to join a Gaza team already in Egypt, a Hamas official told AFP.

The team will meet Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman on Tuesday and will "deliver the movement's position on the Egyptian proposal," Mussa Abu Marzuk, deputy head of Hamas's politburo, told AFP.

Abu Marzuk, speaking on the phone from Damascus, said Hamas insisted on an end to the blockade and did not accept Israel's demand for the release of a soldier captured in mid-2006 as a condition for ending the blockade.

Osama Hamdan, Hamas's representative in Lebanon, said Suleiman would inform Hamas of Israel's response to the proposal. "We are coming to hear whether there is a positive Israeli response," he told AFP.

Hamdan said Hamas had told Egypt that its demand for a truce was, "in sum ... ending the siege in exchange for a calm."

"We are waiting for Israel's response ... We have already responded to the Egyptian proposal and we expect we will hear something positive from the Egyptian side," he said.

In a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, both contenders in an upcoming election, voiced disagreement on whether to accept the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Hamas.

"A deal with Hamas would give it legitimacy," Livni's ministry quoted her as telling the cabinet. Barak, meanwhile, said Egyptian mediation was necessary to achieve a calm and to end arms smuggling into Gaza.

Senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath told AFP that Abbas decided to travel to Cairo, calling off a scheduled visit to the Czech Republic, after Egyptian officials relayed "optimistic reports" from meetings with Hamas.

In Jerusalem, a senior defense official told AFP that Israel was demanding an end to fire from Gaza and arms smuggling.

"Israel does not negotiate with Hamas. Israel demands two conditions -- the total cessation of fire and an end to arms smuggling. Israel is only holding talks with Egypt on this issue," he said.

The fragile ceasefire has been tested by rockets fired into Israel by Gaza militants and retaliatory Israeli air strikes.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday warned of "a severe and disproportionate" response to rocket fire. Hours later, planes bombed an empty Palestinian police station in central Gaza, without causing casualties.

Israel strikes Gaza after militant rocket fire

By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM – Israel threatened "harsh and disproportionate" retaliation after Gaza militants fired at least 10 rockets and mortar shells across the border Sunday and warplanes later bombed the area where Hamas smuggles in weapons from Egypt through tunnels.

The flare-up raised the risk of growing violence in the days leading up to Israel's parliamentary elections on Feb. 10.

Since an unwritten truce ended Israel's offensive in Gaza two weeks ago, rocket and mortar fire from the Palestinian territory ruled by Hamas has increased steadily. Israeli retaliation, including brief ground incursions and bombings of rocket launchers and smuggling tunnels, is also intensifying.

"If there is shooting at residents of the south, there will be an Israeli response that will be harsh and disproportionate by its nature," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet.

Israel launched its three-week offensive with the aim of ending years of Hamas rocket fire at southern Israel. It left nearly 1,300 Palestinians dead, more than half of them civilians, according to Gaza officials. Thirteen Israelis were killed, including three civilians.

A late afternoon mortar barrage on the southern Israeli village of Nahal Oz, next to the Gaza border fence, wounded two soldiers and a civilian, the military and rescue services said. Earlier, a rocket landed near a kindergarten, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

Late Sunday, Palestinians reported huge explosions as Israeli warplanes dropped bombs on the Egypt-Gaza border area, where Hamas operates tunnels to smuggle in weapons, food and other goods, Palestinians said.

Israeli aircraft first flew over the area in southern Gaza setting off sonic booms. Residents said hundreds of people who work in the tunnels fled, then waited in the streets of the border city, Rafah, for the attacks to end so they could return.

The Israeli military said warplanes attacked six tunnels and also an unspecified Hamas post in northern Gaza. No casualties were reported from any of the bombings.

Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu said Olmert's threat was an attempt by Israel to "find false pretexts to increase its aggression against the people" of Gaza.

Hamas has not taken responsibility for the new attacks and Defense Minister Ehud Barak acknowledged Monday that the radical Islamic group was not directly behind most of the barrages.

"We know that most of this fire is not from Hamas but from all kinds of small organizations," he told Israel Radio. "But Hamas is responsible."

Hamas has ruled Gaza since seizing power in June 2007 and Israel holds it responsible for all attacks emanating from its territory.

Israeli defense officials said they had not yet formulated a response to the strikes, but said a return to the offensive — in which Israeli tanks and infantry units penetrated deep into Gaza — was unlikely. Instead, they said Israel would consider airstrikes, including attempts to kill Hamas leaders. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified security matters.

Olmert is in the last weeks of his term. He resigned in September over a string of corruption investigations. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, his Kadima Party's chosen successor, failed to put together an alternative government, forcing the upcoming election.

Two candidates for premier — Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Livni — are in the government, competing for credit for last month's bruising Gaza offensive. The third, front-runner Benjamin Netanyahu of the hawkish Likud Party, is sniping from the side.

All three candidates to replace Olmert leveled their own threats against Hamas.

Livni told the Cabinet meeting that Israel hammered Gaza for three weeks to persuade Palestinian militants to stop their daily rocket barrages.

"At a certain point, we stopped to see if they had got the very clear message that Israel will not accept fire at its civilians," she said, according to participants who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.

With the resumption of the rocket attacks, she said, "the response must be harsh and immediate."

Barak told the Cabinet that Israel would respond, but called for an end to "running off at the mouth" about the options, "even in an election season," his office said in a statement.

Netanyahu told reporters that Israel must be tough in its response, and then work for "removal of the Hamas regime in Gaza, and removal of the threat of rockets (falling) on the suburbs of Tel Aviv."

Pre-election polls show Netanyahu with a lead over Livni, and Barak trailing far behind.

Both Israel and Hamas have been talking to Egyptian mediators about a long-term truce. Israel wants an end to arms smuggling into Gaza from Egypt. Hamas wants Israel and Egypt to reopen Gaza's borders, which have been virtually sealed since Hamas seized power.

Responding to Israel's concerns, U.S. Army engineers arrived at the Gaza-Egypt frontier on Sunday to set up ground-penetrating radar to detect smuggling tunnels, an Egyptian security official said.

Inside the Rafah terminal — the gateway between Egypt and Gaza — four army trucks loaded with wooden crates and drills could be seen accompanied by four U.S. Army engineers. The Egyptian officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity.

In Cairo, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters he will not hold reconciliation talks with Hamas unless it accepts his authority. The two sides have been divided ever since Hamas seized Gaza from Abbas' Fatah forces, which now rule the West Bank.

Reconciliation between the factions could make it easier to reach a more lasting solution to the Gaza-Israel conflict.

Obama says Iraq's peaceful elections aid pullout

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Sunday that the peaceful elections in Iraq are "good news" for U.S. troops and their families, and he agreed with the suggestion that a substantial number of those troops could be home within a year.

"I think that you have a sense now that the Iraqis just had a very significant election with no significant violence that we are in a position to start putting more responsibility on the Iraqis and that's good news not only for the troops on the ground but for the families who are carrying an enormous burden," Obama said in an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer before the Super Bowl. Lauer asked Obama if he could assure the troops "that a substantial number of them will be home" a year from now.

Obama said: "Yes."

Obama gave few details, but said "we're going to roll out in a very formal fashion what our intentions are in Iraq as well as Afghanistan." He said he has been talking with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and commanders on the ground.

Obama had vowed during the campaign to get combat troops out of Iraq in 16 months.

Since the November election, the U.S. and Iraq have signed a new security agreement that provides for all the more than 140,000 U.S. troops to leave by 2012, despite concerns among senior U.S. commanders that Iraqi forces might not be ready by then to ensure stability.

Iraqis voted in provincial elections under tight security this weekend that were conducted with remarkably little violence.

Iraqi election hints of troubles for Shiite giant

By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – The biggest Shiite party in Iraq once appeared to hold all the political sway: control of the heartland, the backing of influential clerics and a foot in the government with ambitions to take full control.

But the days of wide-open horizons could be soon ending for the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, and replaced by important shifts that could be welcomed in Washington and scorned in Tehran.

The signs began to take shape Sunday with hints of the voter mood from provincial elections.

The broad message — built on Iraqi media projections and postelection interviews — was that the eventual results would punish religious-leaning factions such as the Supreme Council that are blamed for stoking sectarian violence, and reward secular parties seen capable of holding Iraq's relative calm.

The outcome of the provincial races will not directly effect Iraq's national policies or its balance between Washington's global power and Iran's regional muscle. But Shiite political trends are critically important in Iraq, where majority Shiites now hold sway after the fall of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime.

"There is a backlash from Iraqis against sectarian and religious politics," said Mustafa al-Ani, an Iraqi political analyst based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Although official results from Saturday's provincial elections are likely still days away, the early outlines are humbling for The Supreme Council. The group had been considered a linchpin in Iraqi politics as a junior partner in the government that had near seamless political control in the Shiite south.

Some forecasts point to widespread losses for the party across the main Shiite provinces. The blows could include embarrassing stumbles in the key city of Basra and the spiritual center of Najaf — hailed as the future capital in the Supreme Council's dreams for an autonomous Shiite enclave.

In their place, the big election winners appear to be allies of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, according to projections and interviews with political figures who spoke on condition of anonymity because official results are not posted.

It's a vivid lesson in Iraq's fluid politics.

A year ago, al-Maliki looked to be sinking. Shiite militiamen ruled cities such as Basra and parts of Baghdad and rockets were pouring into the protected Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy and Iraq's parliament.

Al-Maliki — with apparent little advance coordination with the U.S. military — struck back. An offensive broke the militia control in Basra and elsewhere in the south. His reputation turned around.

And many voters appeared happy to reward his political backers in the elections for seats on provincial councils, which carry significant clout with authority over local business contracts, jobs and local security forces.

"Al-Maliki ended the militiamen's reign of terror," said Faisal Hamadi, 58, after voting in Basra. "For this he deserves our vote."

The Supreme Council, meanwhile, appeared to stagger under the weight of negative baggage.

It was accused of failing to deliver improvements to public services in the south. Also, its deep ties to Iran began to rub against Iraqis' nationalist sentiments.

The Supreme Council's leader, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, spent decades in Iran during Saddam's rule and was allowed an office-villa in downtown Tehran. After Saddam's fall, the Supreme Council was Iran's main political conduit into Iraq even though the group also developed ties with Washington.

Iran now could face limits on its influence in the south with the Supreme Council forced into a coalition or second-tier status — and also confront resistance from a stronger al-Maliki government seeking to curb Tehran's inroads.

A Supreme Council lawmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, acknowledged the election mood was against them.

"We controlled most provinces in the south, so we were blamed for whatever went wrong there," he said.

"The elections gave us an indication of what will happen in the general election late this year," said the analyst al-Ani. "Those who lost in this election have nearly a year to learn their lesson and change their strategy. They know now where the Iraqis stand."

Nationwide turnout in the election was 51 percent, said Faraj al-Haidari, chairman of the election commission. The figure fell short of some optimistic predictions, but was overshadowed by a bigger achievement: no serious violence during the voting.

Turnout ranged from 40 percent in the Sunni-dominated Anbar province in western Iraq to 65 percent in the Salahuddin province, which includes the hometown of Saddam Hussein.

Final figures were not yet ready for the Baghdad area, but al-Haidari said initial reports placed it at about 40 percent. Some unconfirmed reports placed the turnout even lower in the northern city of Mosul, which is considered the last urban foothold for al-Qaida in Iraq.

The timing of the election also could have hurt the Supreme Council, falling at the beginning of a major Shiite religious pilgrimage that may have left some backers unable to vote.

After the election results are known, the deal making begins. Again, the Supreme Council could be left in the cold.

The political-militia movement of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has indicated it may be willing to strike deals with al-Makiki's allies on the councils. It would be a starting turnabout.

Just last year, al-Sadr was denouncing the government as it joined American forces to dismantle his Mahdi Army's main enclave in Baghdad.

"We have no red lines when it comes to al-Maliki's coalition," said Ayed al-Mayahi, al-Sadr's chief representative in Basra. "We are looking ahead and will not be shackled by what happened in the past."

FARC rebels voluntarily free 4 Colombian hostages

By FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press Writer

BOGOTA – Colombia's battered FARC rebels freed three police officers and a soldier held hostage for more than a year, handing them over to the International Red Cross on Sunday in the country's southern jungles.

A Brazilian military helicopter, emblazoned with the Red Cross insignia, retrieved the four hostages and flew them to a provincial airport in Colombia's eastern plains where they were met by relatives and peace activists with hugs and white daisies.

But their handover was marred by accusations that Colombia's military interfered. A reporter who was accompanied the mission, Jorge Enrique Botero, said the military hounded and delayed the mission by more than two hours with numerous flyovers.

Analysts consider the unconditional releases, the guerrillas' first in nearly a year, a goodwill gesture. However, chances for a peace dialogue with Colombia's government remain far off, and Sunday's alleged military interference was only apt to complicate matters.

Colombia President Alvaro Uribe acknowledged the overflights, but said in a late-night news conference that no "offensive military operations" were mounted.

Uribe accused the rebels of using the hostage releases to cynically gain political advantage and he called the presence of Botero and other guarantors during Sunday's mission an inappropriate spectacle.

"The government can't permit terrorism to continue turning the pain of the kidnapped and their families into a party," Uribe said, adding that his government would bar guarantors from hostage pickups planned for Monday and Wednesday.

Captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in 2007, the four security-force members freed Sunday are among six hostages the FARC pledged to liberate unconditionally this week. The other two, the only Colombian politicians believed still in rebel hands, have been held far longer.

The Western Hemisphere's last rebel army has sought the overthrow of successive Colombian governments for 45 years, seeking to impose a leftist regime that they say would redistribute land more equitably.

Colombia's U.S.-backed military has seriously weakened the rebels in the past two years, killing top commanders, compelling hundreds of desertions with hefty rewards and forcing the rebels into virtual radio silence with sophisticated surveillance.

In a bloodless ruse on July 2, Colombian military agents posing as members of an international humanitarian mission rescued 15 hostages, including Colombian-French politician Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors.

The FARC announced this week's releases on Dec. 21 in response to a plea from Colombian intellectuals.

Uribe, however, has resisted FARC attempts to negotiate a prisoner swap. He has frequently been at odds with the opposition lawmaker who helped engineer these releases, Sen. Piedad Cordoba, a close ally of Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez.

FARC commander Alfonso Cano, meanwhile, has refused to renounce kidnapping, a key political and fundraising tool for the rebels. The guerrillas' main revenue source is the cocaine trade.

As Red Cross members picked up the hostages Sunday, the guerrilla commander who released them told the Venezuelan television network Telesur that the military killed a rebel in his unit earlier in the day.

The government's peace commissioner, Luis Carlos Restrepo, did not directly deny the allegation, but said, "We are accustomed to the lies of the FARC."

Restrepo denied the military had interfered. He said authorities honored an agreement with the Red Cross for no military flights beneath 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) during the liberation.

Botero, an independent journalist and author, did not say how high he thought the planes were flying but he called the flights "notorious, abundant and repetitive."

"They were flying in circles. There were several types of airplanes conducting the flights and this of course caused enormous nervousness, not just among us but also among the people of the FARC," he said at the Villavicencio airport where the hostages were greeted by relatives.

Sunday's releases were greeted with hope, but also considerable skepticism.

"This is movement. It's a step forward. But it's not enough. All the hostages need to be released," Democratic Rep. James McGovern of Massachusetts told The Associated Press.

On Monday, the rebels are to hand over former provincial Gov. Alan Jara, 51, who was kidnapped in July 2001. Former provincial lawmaker Sigifredo Lopez, 45, is to be released on Wednesday. He was grabbed in April 2002 during a daring rebel raid on a state assembly in western Colombia.

It is not clear how many hostages the FARC still holds, though the government says they currently include just one foreigner, a Swede named Roland Larsson kidnapped in May 2007.

At least 22 soldiers and police continue to be held by the FARC as bargaining chips.