Ex-FARC hostage: Rebels 'don't recognize humanity'

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CNN) -- The three Americans rescued last week from captivity in the Colombian jungle carried with them simple mementos of the 5½ years they spent as hostages -- a metal lock, a bullet, a chess board made of cardboard.
Left to right, Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes talk about spending more than 5 years as hostages.

Left to right, Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes talk about spending more than 5 years as hostages.

For Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes, these small items are reminders of the years they spent away from their families, cut off from the world outside of the jungle, seeing only fellow hostages and their captors, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The group had held the three U.S. government contractors hostage since February 2003, after their plane crashed in a remote region of the South American country. They were among 15 hostages rescued last week in a Colombian military operation.

"They don't recognize humanity, they don't recognize human rights. They're animals. They're terrorists," Stansell said of the FARC. "We don't want to exaggerate what happened. We just want to tell the truth."

The men painted a gruesome picture of their captivity, describing months in which they were ordered not to speak to each other and an initial camp site where they lived with a rat's nest above them. They slept on the floors of drug labs and were forced to march for hours while chained.

Chains were very much a part of their captivity. Watch the full interview on CNN.com Live at 10 a.m. Friday
"That was put around my neck every night," Stansell told Headline News' Robin Meade on Thursday, holding a heavy industrial lock. "This lock, with 5 meters of chain -- thick, 1-inch links -- went to his neck," Stansell said, pointing at Gonsalves.