Colombian hostage tells of eight-year ordeal in jungle

A former Colombian congressmen who escaped from the Farc guerrilla group with the help of a deserting rebel commander has spoken about his eight-year ordeal. Oscar Tulio Lizcano, 62, fled from his captors in Colombia's western jungles with Wilson Bueno, 28, last Thursday night and was finally airlifted to safety on Sunday, weakened by malnutrition and lack of sleep.

Speaking from a clinic in the western city of Cali, Mr Lizcano said that when soldiers saw him screaming from across a jungle river, they thought he was drunk and ignored him. Only when he lifted Mr Bueno's Galil assault rifle did the soldiers begin to understand that he was escaping from the Farc rebels. "They jumped into the river, and then I started to shout, 'I'm Lizcano'," he said.

The Conservative party congressman is the first Farc hostage to gain freedom since the former French-Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three US military contracters were rescued on 2 July. It is also the first known case of a Farc fighter deserting with a hostage in tow.

A day after he was airlifted to safety, Mr Lizcano began revealing details of his long years in isolation. He said his captors didn't even let him talk to rank-and-file rebels. "I was so lonely," he said. Mr Lizcano, an economist by training, created imaginary students to lecture. "I had the idea to stick sticks in the ground," he said. "I gave them names and they were my students and I gave lectures that I prepared, in history , anecdotes from [former Colombian president Simon] Bolivar and philosophy."

He also passed the time reading, listening to the radio and occasionally playing chess with his captors. In the past four months, he said, the rebels had marched him daily through the jungle with 14 guards.

On Thursday night, he and Mr Bueno departed at about 9pm. They hid during the day and did not sleep for 72 hours, he said. Mr Lizcano said he was so weakened by malnutrition that at one point he told the rebel: "'I can't make it, save yourself'... and he said, 'No, no way. I want to leave here with you'. He took me by both hands, almost dragged me."

The clinic caring for Mr Lizcano said he was suffering from anaemia, a sign of poor nutrition, and infections from parasites, but that his heart, lung and brain function appeared normal. Mr Bueno was reunited with his girlfriend, who had fled his rebel column in June, and his family.

The Farc guerrillas still hold at least 20 senior politicians, police officers and soldiers, including a provincial governor and a police colonel, some of whom have been in captivity for more than a decade.