Dutch woman vows to fight for guerrillas 'until victory or death'

A DUTCH woman who joined Colombia's largest rebel group only to complain of disillusionment in a diary found in 2007 at an abandoned jungle camp has now appeared in a video pledging allegiance to the guerrillas.

In a brief interview, Tanja Nijmeier, speaking in Spanish, said she was not being held against her will and was proud to belong to the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

"Just come and try to 'free' me and we'll receive you here with AK (Kalashnikov rifles],, with mines, with mortars, with everything," she said in the video, which Colombian journalist Jorge Botero said he recorded in August at a rebel camp.

Ms Nijmeier, said she would remain with the FARC "until victory or death and there's no going back". The 32-year-old joined in 2003, becoming the first person from outside Latin America known to have enlisted in the region's largest rebel army.

However, in her diary, she indicated in a 24 November, 2006 entry that, like most FARC foot soldiers, she was not permitted to leave. "This would be worth it if I knew I was fighting for something. But I don't really believe that any more," she wrote, according to excerpts released by the government.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who was defence minister when the diary was discovered, used it to try to counter "guerrilla chic" in Europe, where the FARC has some supporters.

Dutch rights activist Liduine Zumpole, who co-authored a book about Ms Nijmeier and has worked to persuade her to demobilise, said she believes Ms Nijmeier is sincere in her revolutionary fervour and commitment to the rebels. "To me, it's a completely lost case," she said.

In the video, Ms Nijmeier speaks briefly in Dutch. Asked for her memory of Holland, she becomes wistful.

"I remember the village I come from, Denekamp, the church my parents used to attend

"I get melancholy when I think about my family. I have good memories of the Netherlands."