WASHINGTON POST

Saturday, 4 July 1998


                Colombian Rebels Free 'Steel Girls' Hostages
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        By Serge F. Kovaleski


BOGOTA -- Anti-government guerrillas today freed 15 young women whom 
they took hostage nearly three weeks ago after accusing them of covert
activities for the armed forces under the guise of a social services
program.

In what it deemed a "goodwill gesture," the National Liberation Army, or
ELN, released the captives to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos Horta
and the International Committee of the Red Cross in a mountainous jungle
area near Segovia. The gold mining town in central Colombia was where they
had been abducted June 13.

Authorities said the women, ages 13 to 21, appeared to be in good health,
but that one had fractured her ankle after falling off a swing. Three
victims are several months pregnant, and two others recently gave birth.

"We're all very happy and satisfied that this has ended successfully,"
Jose Noe Rios, the government's chief peace envoy, said in an interview
with a Colombian radio station.

"Thank God they are alive and back with us," one of the hostages' mothers
said tonight. "I just pray that this does not affect them for the rest of
their lives. What the guerrillas did was horrible, but I think the army
should have given them better protection."

The freeing of the women, known as the "Steel Girls" because of the army
program's name, comes less than a week after the ELN held preliminary
peace discussions with Colombian officials near Frankfurt, Germany.

The kidnappings had spurred international condemnation and were viewed 
asa new low in Colombia's 34-year rebel conflict.

Today, Ramos Horta was credited with winning the release. He was in
Colombia last week with a UNICEF delegation when he met with two jailed
spokesmen for the ELN, the country's second largest rebel group.

According to the Colombian military, the women had worked for a civic
program run by the army in and around Segovia -- a town once controlled by
guerrillas -- teaching residents how to improve their reading and offering
health and family counseling, among other things.

But the ELN contended that the women, who dressed in fatigues while
working, were armed and conducted undercover operations for the military.
The army has denied the charges.

In an interview today on Radionet radio, one of the freed hostages said
the group had collectively decided to quit the Steel Girls program.

"If we put the uniforms back on and go out with the soldiers, they will
declare us military objectives," the unidentified woman said.