PARIS - Ingrid Betancourt, the former Colombian presidential candidate who was released last week after six years in captivity at the hands of the country’s leftist rebels, said Wednesday that it was vital that the world’s attention not turn away from hundreds of other hostages left in the Colombian jungles now that she is free.

Betancourt, 46, was snatched by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, during her 2002 presidential campaign. She was freed last week when Colombian intelligence officers duped the guerrillas into releasing her and 14 other captives, including three U.S. defense contractors.

But FARC, which was formed in the 1960s as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, is believed to still hold about 400 hostages.

In an interview with NBC's Ann Curry in Paris, Betancourt said she was deeply concerned for the hostages who were left behind, saying that each time a hostage had escaped or been rescued in the past, rebels’ treatment of remaining captives worsened. She said the danger was even more acute now because of the attention she was given as the rebels’ most famous captive.

“I have deeply, deeply the feeling that we have to find a way to bring them to freedom,” Betancourt, a French-Colombian, said in French-accented English.

“When I left Colombia [last week], I had the opportunity of hugging their families,” she said. “They were so distressed. They felt that perhaps because we were free, I think they had the impression that the light was off for them.”

‘We have to do more’
Since her release, Betancourt has continued her activism against FARC, launching a psychological campaign urging the rebels to stop fighting and to release their remaining hostages.

“I’ll do everything I can, because I am with them every minute — day and night with them,” said Betancourt, who said she would not cut her waist-length hair until all the hostages had been released.

“It’s a biological clock,” Betancourt said. “We have to do more. I don’t know if I can do more, but I know we — everybody — has to do more.”

Video   Colombian rescue video July 4: Colombia released video of the rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and others. NBC’s Mark Potter reports. Nightly News

Betancourt said she could not bring herself to talk about how she and other hostages were treated in the jungles of Colombia.

“It’s very hard. I don’t want to talk about that,” she said, although she acknowledged that her captors had been “very cruel.”

But she said she did not have “any kind of feeling of revenge or bitterness. You have to pardon. I think that’s the key of everything.”

“We’re human beings. We think different, we act different, but we are human beings,” she said.

No return to Colombia for now
In the past week, Betancourt recorded a message urging the guerrillas to release their remaining captives. The army has been broadcasting the message from helicopter loudspeakers over the Colombian jungles.

For now, her recording is her only presence in her home country. She said she did not believe it would be safe for her — or for her two children, Melanie and Lorenzo — if she returned immediately.

“I am Colombian from the bottom of my heart, and I adore my country, and I want to serve my country,” Betancourt said.

But “things are not secure, and I figured that for anyone wanting to take revenge, I would be an easy target,” she said.

“My family has been through a horrible ordeal, and I don’t think I have the right to just break all our dreams when we are finally able to touch our hands and feel each other,” she said.

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