Colombian FARC rebels today freed one of three German aid workers whose kidnapping in July seriously strained the country's already difficult peace talks, Colombian and German officials said.
The German, whose identity was still not clear, was released in the small native Indian settlement of Pitayo in the southwestern province of Cauca this morning, a Colombian government spokesman said.
People in Pitayo identified the freed man as Mr Thomas Kuenzel, local radio said.
A German embassy spokesman said that it appeared to be true that one of the three kidnapped men had been released and was safely in the hands of the army on his way to the provincial capital Popayan, 240 miles (380 km) southwest of the national capital Bogota.
"We are very happy about this. But we continue to demand the immediate release of the two still in the hands of the FARC and we expect and demand that the norms of human rights and international humanitarian law continue to be respected", spokesman Mr Herbert Behrendt told reporters.
Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- known by the Spanish initials FARC -- kidnapped Mr Kuenzel, his brother Ulrich and Reiner Bruchmann on July 18th as they toured rural aid projects for indigenous communities in Cauca.
European Union countries said they would end their assistance to peace talks between the government and the FARC until the rebels freed the three men. The FARC is the largest rebel force fighting in a 37-year-old war which has claimed 40,000 lives in the past decade alone.