Foreign journalists in Colombia enter fifth day in captivity

By Michael Easterbrook ~ The Associated Press

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The Red Cross failed Saturday to make contact with rebels who kidnapped an American photojournalist and a British reporter early last week.

Photographer Scott Dalton and reporter Ruth Morris were captured on Tuesday in the eastern province of Arauca. The two were on assignment for the Los Angeles Times.

Fighters from the National Liberation Army, or ELN, announced two days later they were holding the journalists. The rebels said they would be released when "political and military conditions permit."

Earlier, the journalists' hired driver, who was detained and later released, had said the rebels promised to turn the foreigners over to the Red Cross along with a message for the international community.

A Red Cross delegate in Arauca, where Dalton, 34, and Morris, 35, were abducted, made unsuccessful attempts Saturday to contact the rebels, Red Cross spokesman Carlos Rios told The Associated Press.

Police officials in the province said they had nothing new to report on the fate of the hostages.

The ELN and a larger rebel group are fighting right-wing paramilitaries and the government for control of oil-rich Arauca.

The United States, which has given Colombia nearly $2 billion in mostly military aid, recently deployed approximately 70 Green Berets to Arauca to train Colombian troops. The rebels see their presence as an act of aggression.

Dalton worked for The Associated Press for about nine years in Panama, Guatemala and Colombia. Last year, he left the AP to pursue video projects while freelancing for major newspapers.

Morris has previously written as a freelancer for the Los Angeles Times, Time magazine, and other publications.

Also Saturday, gunmen in western Caldas province removed six people from their homes and shot to death at least three of them, department police Col. Rodolfo Palomino said. The fate of the other three was unknown and police said it was unclear if the gunmen belonged to any of the country's armed groups.

On Friday suspected rebels armed with machetes killed four Colombian men who had apparently denounced them for stealing cattle, authorities said Saturday.

The killings occurred in Sahagun, 310 miles northeast of the capital. Police blamed the slayings on a small band of rebel fighters known as the Popular Revolutionary Army.