Kidnapped Belgians released in Guatemala: foreign ministry

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

BRUSSELS (AFP) — Four Belgian tourists kidnapped by a peasant group in Guatemala have been freed and were being taken to the capital Sunday, Belgian and Guatemalan authorities said Sunday.

"We were informed this morning that the four tourists were freed on Saturday," Belgian foreign ministry spokesman Francois Delhaye said.

"It seems there was no intervention by police" to release them from their captives, a peasant group calling themselves "Encuentro Campesino" ("Rural Encounter"), demanding the release from jail of one of their leaders.

Their release apparently "came after negotiations," he said.

Delhaye said the four Belgians -- identified as Gabriel Van Huysse, 64, Marie Paul Duboise and Eric Stofferis, both 62, and Jenny Belaen, 59 -- underwent...