Colombia misused Red Cross emblem

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But the use of the Red Cross symbol takes some of the shine off themission.
"Parties to the conflict must respect the Red Cross emblem at alltimes and under all circumstances," said Yves Heller, a spokesmanfor the International Committee of the Red Cross in Colombia. "Wewill continue working in the field in Colombia."
State security agents posed as members of a fictitious aid groupthat ingratiated itself with the guerrillas. They convinced theinsurgents that they would fly the hostages by helicopter to meetwith the rebels' leader in a secret camp.
Once in the air, Colombian officers overpowered the two guerrillason board, tied them up and told the 15 hostages they were free.
Uribe said on Wednesday that the use of the Red Cross symbol wasnot part of the government's original rescue plan.
"One of the officers has admitted that when the helicopter waslanding at the start of the operation he saw so many guerrillasthat he got nervous. He feared for his life and he pulled out ajersey that had the Red Cross symbol and put it over his vest,"Uribe said.
Debate raged in Colombia over the legality of the mission.
"It would have been a violation of the Geneva Conventions if thestate would have used the Red Cross symbol to gain a militaryadvantage," said Rafael Nieto, a political commentator and formerdeputy justice minister. "In this case the goal was to complete ahumanitarian, not a military, objective."
But other legal experts disagreed.
"I doubt that a state can abuse the Red Cross symbol, no matterwhat the circumstances," said Jose Alvarez, a professor at ColumbiaUniversity Law School in New York.
The cocaine-funded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,still holds hundreds of Colombians for ransom and politicalleverage in its decade-old war against the state.
Uribe's father was killed in a botched FARC kidnapping years ago,and he is hugely popular for making the cities and highways saferwith his hard-line military policies.
(Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Kieran Murray)