April 2 2001

ARTICLE TOOLS

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"We call upon those responsible within the [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia] to come forth with a complete account of our missing fellow citizens," said a State Department spokesman, Reuters news agency reported.

The announcement marked the eighth anniversary of the 1993 abduction of missionaries Dave Mankins, Rick Tenenoff, and Mark Rich. These men were working for the evangelical New Tribes Mission when they were abducted from a Panamanian village near the country's border with Colombia.

Whether the rebel group was involved in the initial abduction is unclear, but reports from rebel defectors and others later confirmed the three were in their custody, according to New Tribes representatives. Initially the rebels demanded millions of dollars in ransom, but they later refused to negotiate with U.S. and Colombian officials and New Tribes representatives.

Conflicting reports of the missionaries' fates have emerged since then—some say the men were murdered by rebels in 1994, while other reports claim the men were alive as recently as 1999. Washington will continue working to investigate the trio's fate and secure their release, the State Department said.

New Tribes Mission has devoted a section of its Web site to an area solely about the three kidnapped missionaries, with news, prayer requests, a history of the kidnapping, and information about the missionaries and their ...