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June 23rd, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Colombia’s leftist National Liberation Army (ELN), stated on Thursday that it would release two Dutch journalists it had detained earlier this week in northeastern Colombia.
ELN guerrilla (archives)
The ELN assured that the 62-year-old TV journalist Derk Johannes Bolt and the 58-year-old TV cameraman Eugenio Ernest Marie Follender are in good spirit and in good health. The two were detained while they were in El Tarra, in Norte de Santander.
After contacting local groups – which is not necessarily easy for a guerrilla – the ELN leadership used its Twitter account to announce: “The northeastern front reports the Dutch journalists are in good health and will be released”. The ELN leadership also noted that a statement would be released once the journalists have been released.
The ELN has repeatedly detained journalists in areas controlled by the ELN or areas with a strong ELN presence. Last year a source close to the ELN explained to nsnbc that the ELN, in some cases, detains journalists to conduct background checks.
The person (known to nsnbc by name) stressed that it is common for journalists to “double as intelligence assets”, while there are other cases where intelligence operatives double or pose as journalists. Normally, journalists who have no “entanglements” will be released relatively expediently, said the ELN contact.
The issue poses a cohort of ethical problems. Journalists should be able to work, freely, in any areas controlled by guerrilla organizations. Journalists who are becoming a willing or unintended party to a conflict, on the other hand, are also violating journalistic ethics and “provoke” being considered as security risk and/or spy.
After the FARC-EP began its disarmament process, the ELN is now the largest active leftist guerrilla in Colombia. It has an estimated 2,000 persons under arms plus a considerable network of non-combatants.
The ELN and the government of Colombia are engaged in peace talks aimed to reach an agreement based on the peace accord between the State and the FARC-EP. Once such an accord has been reached, one might hope that regrettable incidents involving the ELN detaining (kidnapping) journalists, and journalists doubling as intelligence assets come to an end.
CH/L & A/N – nsnbc 23.06.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/06/23/colombias-eln-to-release-two-detained-dutch-journalists/
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