Dutch girl serves with Colombian rebels
A Dutch girl going under the name of Eillen is apparently serving with FARC rebels in Colombia, according to Colombian paper El Tiempo on Sunday.
The paper says Eillen was forced to flee after an army raid on a FARC camp, leaving her diary behind. El Tiempo has printed a photograph of the girl, but there are no further details about her Dutch origins.
The paper says Eillen arrived in Colombia in 2000 when the FARC was involved in peace talks with the government of the time. She was one of a group of young Europeans who were in Colombia to learn about Latin American Marxist Leninism.
Eillen returned again in 2002 and has since worked as a translator for the FARC, reports Dutch news agency ANP.
In her diary, Eillen says she misses the Netherlands and finds it hard to contact her parents. On August 23, 2006 she reports that she had telephoned her parents. ‘Mum cried and so did Dad,’ she says. ‘Now I have to await my punishment, because everyone [here] is allowed to phone except me.’
She also writes of her disillusionment with the FARC. ‘I am tired, tired of the FARC, tired of the people, tired of communal living,’ ANP quotes from her diary.
‘I am tired of never having anything of my own. But it would be worth it if you knew what you were fighting for.’
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