Meryl Streep presents leadership award to ex-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt

Streep presents award to ex-hostage Betancourt

UNITED NATIONS — It was hard to tell who was more impressed when film star Meryl Streep presented a leadership award to Ingrid Betancourt, the former Colombian presidential candidate who endured years of captivity in jungle camps.

Betancourt was one of four women honored Saturday night at the inaugural DVF Awards, created by fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg to honor women working for change in their countries.

For the event, the designer took a United Nations reception room and made it almost unrecognizable — transforming it into a nightclub scene with brightly patterned couches, small trees and pink-hued candlelight.

Betancourt, a French-Colombian who was running for president of Colombia when she was kidnapped in 2002 by leftist FARC guerrillas, quipped that she didn’t know who was more impressive, the presenters or the women being honored.

“It’s like a dream, being here with Meryl Streep,” she said.

As for Streep, she wondered how Betancourt endured years of captivity in the jungle without losing her spirit. “Myself, I can’t imagine not being destroyed by this,” Streep said.

Betancourt, 48, was freed in 2008 in a dramatic rescue operation and now lives in France, where she was raised.

She said in an interview before the awards ceremony that she isn’t ready to return to live in Colombia. “Not now,” she said. “We’ll see what life brings.” Nor does she think it’s time to seek political office again: “I’m not ready for politics right now,” said the former Colombian senator.

Sadiqa Basiri Saleem, an Afghan women’s rights activist, was another recipient of a DVF Award, receiving her statue from CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour. She said she hoped to use her award money from the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation — $50,000 — toward building the first Afghan women’s college.

The other honorees were Danielle Saint-Lot, an activist in Haiti, whose award was presented by Melanne Verveer, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for global women’s affairs, and Katherine Chon, head of the U.S.-based Polaris Project, which combats human trafficking. Her award was given by ABC’s “Good Morning America” co-host Robin Roberts.

Betancourt was joined at the ceremony by Marc Gonsalves, one of three captured U.S. military contractors who were held with her in the jungle. One of his fellow captives wrote harshly of her, accusing Betancourt of being haughty and self-absorbed in the jungle, in a book last year about their experiences in captivity.

Betancourt told The Associated Press she has finished writing a new book. And if a movie were to be made about her life, she was asked, would she want to be played by Streep? “Can you imagine?” she asked. “I would love that.”

Of her time in captivity, she told Saturday’s audience that she had learned something important.

“When you have lost everything, when everything that you care about has been taken from you, when you feel your life doesn’t belong to you anymore, there’s something that nobody can take from you: the freedom to choose who you want to be.”

Von Furstenberg said the DVF awards will become an annual event.

“I’ve been wanting to do awards for a long time,” said the designer, best known for her bold prints and wrap dresses.

She chose this time because Tina Brown, editor of the Daily Beast Web site, was holding a woman’s conference in New York for women’s rights activists from around the world. Many of the participants were present at Saturday’s awards ceremony.

“Every woman in this room is so incredible, it humbles me,” said von Furstenberg.