Colombian bishop urges release of Ingrid Betancourt, other hostages

A bishop preaching in a war zone Sunday called on leftist rebels to release French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt and hundreds of other, lesser-known captives.

The sermon was held amid driving rain in San Jose del Guaviare, a jungle town near where Betancourt is believed to be held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

"We hope that the FARC heeds our appeals and speedily liberates Ingrid Betancourt and the rest of the hostages," Bishop Guillermo Orozco told 400 people crowded into his church.

He urged the rebels to "accept the mediation of the church so we can finally get those hostages free," and said the hostages should "resist and be confident that at some point their release will come."

The abduction of Betancourt, a former senator, while campaigning for the presidency in February 2002 has prompted an international outcry and multinational efforts to rescue her.

The latest, French-led mission to free her _ or at least deliver medical aid _ seemed at a standstill Sunday. A government jet carrying doctors and diplomats has been sitting idle on the tarmac at Bogota's international airport since it arrived Thursday.

French Ambassador Jean Michel Marlaud was working at the embassy on Sunday and was too busy to talk to reporters, his aides said.

Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in Paris on Saturday that the French team was still "on alert" in case the rebels make contact. So far the rebels have not responded to the humanitarian effort, which was launched amid reports the 46-year-old Betancourt was near death.

The uncorroborated reports, published by local media, came from unidentified peasant farmers in eastern Guaviare state who allegedly saw Betancourt in recent weeks.

Betancourt's mother, Yolanda Pulecio, told Caracol radio on Sunday that her daughter is suffering from the parasitic infection amebiasis.

"She has a cyst formed by amoebas," Pulecio said during a weekend program dedicated to transmitting messages for the hostages. "That is very painful."

Pulecio said as a result, her daughter had no appetite and was not eating properly. She did not explain where she received the information and did not return telephone calls from The Associated Press.

Betancourt's son, Lorenzo Delloye, said in Paris last week that his mother suffers from hepatitis B and a skin disease and was in danger of dying if she didn't get a blood transfusion "in the coming hours."

Delloye said he had received the information from former hostage Luis Eladio Perez, who last saw Betancourt on Feb. 4. It was not clear how Perez would have known Betancourt needed an emergency transfusion if he had last seen her two months ago. An AP reporter was unable to reach Perez by phone at his Bogota home Sunday.

Another former hostage, Orlando Beltran Cueller, who was freed by the FARC on Feb. 27 alongside Perez and two other people, said on Colombian radio this weekend that Betancourt was so sick with hepatitis when he was with her that she had to be carried in a hammock when the rebels moved the hostages.

The rebels hold hundreds of hostages, most for ransom. But the dozens of politicians, soldiers and police and three U.S. contractors who languish in jungle camps will be released only as part of a swap for rebels held in jails in Colombia and the United States, the FARC has said.