Freed hostage Betancourt describes ordeal

Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt has described her ordeal at the hands of Colombian rebels.

The former Colombian presidential candidate, who was freed from more than six years as a hostage of the Farc rebel group last week, described how she was tortured, blindfolded and forced to wear chains during her captivity.

Ms Betancourt became an icon in France and was awarded the Legion of Honour on the country's biggest national holiday this week after being freed by the Colombian army.

She told a US TV network: "I'm trying to keep myself together. It's been a very intense and very tiring week. I am just exhausted."

She added: "It was hell. It was hell for the body, it was hell for the soul, hell for the mind. Everything was so horrible, We had all kind of pains - little pains, big pains."

Asked if she was physically, as well as mentally tortured, she said: "We all were. We all were."

Speaking from a Paris hotel, she said her captors "had orders to kill me" and described how she had to wear chains and blindfolds, and was forced to hide and run at the will of the rebels.

Pausing, and closing her eyes, she said: "I think that the worst thing is realising that mankind... that human beings can be so horrible to other human beings."

Ms Betancourt added: "Death was my everyday companion."

She said her captors had orders to kill her and, when asked for more details on the punishments they used, she said: "I don't want to kill myself with those memories.

"Some things have to be left in the jungle."

Earlier in an interview, Ms Betancourt described her first week of freedom as an "incredible bubble of happiness" and said she was trying not to think too much about her captivity.

But she said she had been "crying a lot" since her rescue last week.

"When I think of things that I don't like to recall, it's very hard, and I have sometimes problems not to cry," she said.

She added that tears often "jump" into her eyes.

Ms Betancourt, a former Colombian senator, was kidnapped while campaigning for the presidency in 2002 and her children, Melanie, 22, and Lorenzo, 19, campaigned tirelessly on her behalf, helping to turn here into a cause celebre in France.

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