SF hits back at Colombia claims

Sinn Fein today demanded the resignation of Colombia’s Prosecutor General after he claimed there was considerable evidence linking three Irishmen to left-wing rebels in the country.

Mitchel McLaughlin, Sinn Fein’s national chairman, described as “a disgrace” comments by Luis Camilo Osorio ahead of the trial of James Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly that hundreds of people were being massacred in Colombia by Marxist FARC rebels with mortar bombs which resembled the IRA’s.

In comments which ignited a new row with supporters of the three Irish republicans arrested last year, the Prosecutor General also claimed the Provisionals tested weapons while visiting rebels in the jungle.

“The techniques that the FARC have developed in recent years show that they have had technical assistance and used technology similar to those used by the IRA,” he said.

“We are talking about a type of cylinder with explosives and we’re talking about a type that consists of a series of long tubes in which you put rockets similar to those used by the IRA.”

Mr Osorio said in one attack, 115 people were massacred, “most of them children and defenceless women taking refuge in a church”.

He also said the case compiled against the three men was supported by evidence from a number of witnesses who saw the men enter the zone in the Colombian jungle controlled by FARC and train and instruct “subversives” in weapons techniques.

Lab tests for explosives also supported the prosecution’s case, he told BBC Northern Ireland.

However Mr McLaughlin hit back at the comments, claiming the men’s chances of a fair trial in Colombia had been seriously damaged by the Prosecutor General’s remarks.

“These people are facing a trial in a society which does not have a great reputation of respect for human rights,” the Foyle Assembly member said.

“I believe their possibility of receiving a fair trial has already been significantly damaged and has been further damaged by that interview with the Prosecutor General.

“In any other judicial process – even here – that would be a resignation matter and it should be for him, I believe.”

The Sinn Fein MLA also criticised Ulster Unionist Minister Sir Reg Empey for accusing republicans of running scared of the Colombian General’s comments.

Sir Reg, the Stormont Enterprise Minister, called the Colombian arrests the “republicans’ Watergate”.

The East Belfast MLA argued: “Anybody who knows anything about the Republican Movement and the background of those individuals would know perfectly well that they were up to no good.

“They were involved with the nasty drug-based terrorist organisation that is obviously killing large numbers of people in its current campaign.”

However, Mr McLaughlin said he believed the IRA when it insisted it did not sanction any trip to Colombia.

The latest row erupted after the Colombian President Alvaro Uribe declared a state of emergency following a wave of violence that left over 100 dead.

Fighting between government forces, right and left wing paramilitaries erupted after President Uribe’s inauguration last week.

In one incident, a home-made bomb exploded near the presidential palace in Bogota, killing 21 people and injuring more than 70.

Supporters of the three Irishmen detained in Colombia since August last year are currently in the capital, Bogota and were due to protest against the Prosecutor General’s interview to UN officials later today.