Amsterdam - The Dutch government said Wednesday that it was
conducting high-level talks with the Colombian government on the case
of a missing Dutch woman believed to have first joined, then be held
against her will, by a Colombian left-wing guerrilla group.
The Dutch intelligence service AIVD also said it would open
investigations into FARC's reported recruiting activities in the
Netherlands.
Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Verhagen confirmed the talks with
Colombia about the woman identified as Tanja Nijmeijer.
But he declined to disclose details, saying that might
jeopardize the women's safety.
The missing woman is credited with diary entries being published
in a Bogota, Colombia, newspaper, El Tiempo, that indicate she first
voluntarily joined the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC,)
then was held against her will when she wanted to leave.
The diary was reportedly found by the Colombian army when it
raided a guerrilla camp six weeks ago, El Tiempo reported. In the
diary, the woman identifies herself as 'Eileen.'
On Monday a Dutch foreign affairs spokesman told Deutsche
Presse-Agentur dpa the ministry did not know about any Dutch
nationals who had joined FARC.
Wednesday, Foreign Affairs officially told reporters one of its
former staff members did have contact with Nijmeijers' parents.
Additional sections of the diary published Wednesday in Bogota
indicated that more European nationals, including Norwegians, had
voluntarily joined FARC. In the entry on November 24, 2003, 'Eileen'
writes about a certain 'Karel'. Elsewhere in the diary she mentions a
'Jansie' and 'Karen'.
'Eileen' was identified as 29-year-old Tanja Nijmeijer, from the
northern Netherlands. Her family has been looking for her for several
years.
Wednesday a former staff member of the Dutch embassy in Bogota
told the Foreign Ministry that Nijmeijer's relatives had visited the
Dutch embassy in Bogota in 2003 in an attempt to find her.
However, he said, they ultimately refrained from requesting the
Dutch authorities to launch an official search.
The former staff member added the meeting between the family and
the embassy had been informal and therefore nothing was reported to
Dutch foreign affairs officials.
In February 2004, Nijmeijer's parents reported their daughter
missing to the Dutch Red Cross.
The Dutch intelligence service AIVD said it would investigate
FARC's activities in the Netherlands.
On Wednesday, Minister of the Interior Guusje Ter Horst (Labour
Party) said her impression was any involvement of Dutch nationals was
limited to 'isolated cases' only.
She was responding to remarks by Colombia experts speaking on
Dutch television who said FARC is actively recruiting people in the
Netherlands and other European countries.
Established in the 1960s as the military wing of the Colombian
Communist Party, FARC is Latin America's oldest, largest, and best-
equipped Marxist insurgency.
FARC has 12,000 to 18,000 members, some 30 per cent of whom are
recruits under 18 years of age.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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