Bodies of dead Colombian lawmakers to be recovered

BOGOTA, July 10 (Reuters) Colombian rebels will hand over the corpses of 11 local politicians killed in captivity last month, allowing authorities to determine if they were murdered or died in crossfire, the Red Cross said.

The government accuses the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, of executing the provincial lawmakers in an incident that prompted hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets last week in protest of guerrilla kidnappings.

The FARC, which is also holding French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three American defense contractors, says the lawmakers were cut down in crossfire when an unidentified military group attacked their secret jungle prison.

Recovery of the corpses would give scientists a chance to determine the true circumstances of the deaths.

''We got a request from the FARC to recover the bodies and we got the green light from the government to do so,'' said Yves Heller, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Colombia yesterday.

''We don't how long it will take to get the security guarantees we need to go in and get the bodies.'' Colombia was stunned in 2002 when the guerrillas kidnapped the lawmakers from a government building in the western city of Cali by masquerading as soldiers and coolly escorting them onto a bus, saying they were being evacuated due to a bomb scare.

The lawmakers were among dozens of high-profile hostages whom President Alvaro Uribe wants to exchange for guerrillas held in government jails. But Uribe is deadlocked with the rebels over conditions for starting prisoner swap talks.

The FARC wants him to pull troops from a New York City-sized rural area to clear the way for negotiations. Uribe refuses.

The president was elected in 2002 after criticizing peace talks in which the guerrillas were granted control of a Switzerland-sized area that they used to consolidate their cocaine- and kidnapping-funded revolution.

Betancourt was captured by the FARC during her 2002 presidential campaign. US defense contractors Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves were seized by the rebels during a 2003 anti-drug mission.

Uribe, whose father was killed in a botched FARC kidnapping in the 1980s, was re-elected last year based on the economic growth brought by his US-backed security crackdown.

Reuters AGL GC0933