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Dying boy's plea: Let me see my daddy
By SIBYLLA BRODZINSKY BOGOTA, Colombia -- Twelve-year-old Andres Felipe Perez has lost hope. In the late stage of a battle against cancer, he has pleaded with unyielding leftist rebels to release his kidnapped father so he can see him before he dies. But the cancer has invaded most of his major organs and the young boy has resigned himself to never seeing his father again. Andres Felipe was diagnosed with cancer when he was just 6 months old but removing a kidney had him in remission for 11 years. The cancer metastasized shortly after his father, police Cpl. Jose Norberto Perez, was captured in a rebel attack in eastern Colombia in March 2000. Since then, the disease has spread throughout Andres Felipe's frail body. Two weeks ago, doctors removed half of his remaining kidney. He has half a right lung and a tumor has invaded his left lung and one of his legs. Repeated surgery and chemotherapy have failed to stop the spread of malignant cells. Morphine eases his physical pain, his mother says, but the emotional pain has no cure. "When Norberto was kidnapped, Andres was shattered," says Francia Edith Ocampo. "And that's when the cancer reappeared." Andres has hoped the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) would show compassion for his condition and release his father. Now, his mother says, he seems to have accepted that won't happen. "He told me: "I just want to rest. I know he's not coming. I've lost the fight,"' Ocampo says from Andres' room in the Police Hospital, where he has received treatment for the past three months. Doctors have told Ocampo nothing more can be done for the young boy, so she plans to take him home this week to their native city of Buga in southwestern Colombia. Despite his parents' separation six years ago and the demands of Norberto Perez's police job, Andres saw his father often, and they understood each other well, Ocampo says. She blames her son's deterioration on the kidnapping. Several months ago, when doctors said Andres would need a kidney transplant, they thought Norberto would be the perfect donor and Ocampo launched a public campaign asking the rebels to free him. Local media splashed the boy's story across televisions and newspapers nationwide. But FARC spokesmen cast aspersions on the campaign, suggesting it was a ploy for the corporal's release, and asked for proof of the child's illness. "We sent the FARC X-rays showing his tumors but we never got an answer," Ocampo says. Since Norberto's capture, Andres has received only one letter from his father, last December. Letters Andres has sent through the Red Cross have gone unanswered and Ocampo thinks they have been lost. Andres' family doesn't know if Norberto is even aware of his son's condition, although relatives have sent messages over a radio program aimed at kidnap victims, and FARC hostages are sometimes allowed to watch newscasts. Andres Felipe's hopes to be reunited with his dad peaked last June when the FARC released hundreds of low-ranking police officers and soldiers captured over the past three years. But Norberto was not among them. He is one of about 50 officers left behind in jungle prison camps that FARC hopes to exchange for jailed rebels. Despite the attitude of the rebels, Ocampo says she wishes Norberto's captors no harm. "I don't feel hate, or anger," she says. "I just want them to open their hearts and grant Andres his wish to see his father." A drawing Andres made several months ago shows a FARC rebel and a policeman embracing and throwing down their weapons with a line reading, "Let us leave behind the war and embrace peace," his mother says. The picture adorns his hospital room. But most Colombians harbor few illusions about rebel goodwill. Although FARC has been engaged in peace talks with the government for three years, the intensity of Colombia's 37-year civil conflict has soared. The stumbling negotiations are on hold over disputes between rebel and government leaders over stepped-up security around the Switzerland-sized rebel enclave, which has been cleared of government troops as a stage for the talks. Meanwhile, kidnappings, rebel attacks and fighting continue. "Norberto and Andres have become victims of the failure of the peace process," Ocampo says. Andres' plight has moved many Colombians to donate money to the family and write letters to FARC asking for Norberto's release. President Andres Pastrana on Tuesday called on FARC to release the boy's father. "That is a gesture that wouldn't cost the FARC anything. I think it would be important to give Andres Felipe that possibility, that joy, that happiness to allow him to be with his father," Pastrana says. Pedro Cabezas has taken his solidarity one step further. The 43-year-old electrician -- a stranger to the Perez family -- offered to exchange his freedom for Norberto's so Andres Felipe can be reunited with his father. "We have to do something. Tomorrow may be too late," he told the newspaper El Tiempo. Though grateful, Andres' mother asked Cabezas to reconsider. "He has his own family to worry about, and if he exchanges himself for Norberto, then his own children will be sick with worry," she says. FARC has not responded to Cabezas' offer but unconfirmed media reports said the rebels might be looking for a different kind of exchange. Caracol television reported Tuesday that FARC would be willing to free Norberto if the government releases a jailed rebel, an offer the government was not likely to accept. "It's cruel that minutes before the death of this child the FARC start imposing conditions," says Human Rights Ombudsman Eduardo Cifuentes. Meanwhile, Andres Felipe lies in his hospital bed, breathing with the help of a respirator, as his mother tries to persuade him to fight on, to hold out one last hope that his father will be by his side before he dies.
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