Rebels 'had technology learnt from abroad', Colombian trial told

Colombia rebels have technology they could only have obtained from abroad, it was claimed last night as three suspected IRA members went on trial accused of training the Marxist guerillas in terrorist tactics.

“On his own, a guerrilla didn’t have the capacity to acquire this technology,” Major Carlos Matias told the Bogota court, describing recent advances the rebels have made in bomb-making techniques.

“It had to have come from somewhere.

“(The rebels) have taken experience from other foreign groups, like ETA, the IRA and the Shining Path,” he said, referring to insurgent groups in Spain and Peru, in addition to the IRA.

James Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley were arrested at Bogota’s airport 15 months ago after visiting a rebel safe haven in southern Colombia, where prosecutors say they trained insurgents in explosives and other terrorist techniques.

The trio face 28 years in prison if convicted.

A dozen protesters greeted the suspects, who were travelling on false passports and insist they were in Colombia to observe the peace process between then-President Andres Pastrana and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc.

Sinn Fein has acknowledged Connolly was its Latin American representative. Monaghan is an IRA veteran convicted in 1971 for possessing explosives and conspiring to cause explosions.

McCauley was wounded during a police raid at an IRA arms dump in 1982 and was later convicted of weapons possession.

Matias – the first prosecution witness to give evidence at the trial – did not explain any specific evidence that linked the three men to the Farc. He presented a pair of bomb-making manuals, in English and in Spanish, that the military discovered in FARC hands several months ago.

He did say that the only people who went to the safe haven were people who lived there, journalists and people invited by the Farc.

A dozen protesters greeted an Irish delegation outside the courtroom on Friday, chanting, in English, “IRA, take your bombs away.”

The delegates came to observe the trial because of their concerns that the three men would not receive a fair hearing in Colombia.

Judge Jairo Acosta issued a gag order on Colombian media, prohibiting local reporters from publishing accounts of testimony in the case until after the trial is concluded. He said the ruling did not apply to international media.

A spokeswoman of “Bring Them Home,” an Ireland-based activist organisation working for the release of the three men, said they would not be attending today’s hearing and they hadn’t yet decided if they would attend for the next few days.

Standing outside the courthouse, Caitriona Ruane, the spokeswoman, said the defence plans to present two alibi witnesses – Sile Maguire, an Irish diplomat in Mexico, and Ross O’Sullivan – to deny prosecution claims that the men visited Colombia repeatedly, she said.

The defence will also present two character witnesses – Laurence McKeown, a former IRA prisoner, and Danny Morrison, a former publicity director for Sinn Fein, the political party associated with the IRA, she said.

Ruane repeated concerns Bring Them Home activists have voiced throughout the months-long process.

“This case is being politicised everywhere in the world in an attempt to destroy the Irish peace process,” she said. “We won’t allow the Irish peace process to be destroyed. We want peace in Ireland and in Colombia.”

She also said the defence plans to bring in a British forensic expert to refute prosecution evidence that the men had explosive residue on their clothes when they were arrested.

She expected that issue to come up during a later phase of the trial, which will most likely be held in January.

Nearby, protesters continued their chants.

“They are the delinquents that bring arms to Colombia and because of that the war continues,” said protester Steven Velasquez, 17, a recent high school graduate whose older brother was killed fighting for the army.

As many as 15 IRA members visited a rebel safe haven during the three-year peace talks, according to a US congressional report, which said the FARC has now begun using IRA-style tactics and equipment in mortar and other attacks.

Colombia’s 38-year-old civil war pits leftist rebels, rightist paramilitaries and government troops against one another, leaving about 3,500 people dead each year. President Alvaro Uribe has promised a hard-line campaign to end the fighting.

The Irish delegation – which includes activist Paul Hill who is married to Mary Kennedy, daughter of Robert F Kennedy who was assassinated in 1968 - visited the men in jail.

The three men have received numerous death threats and cook for themselves out of fear that their food will be poisoned, said Agustin Jimenez, a human rights lawyer and president of the legal committee handling the men’s case.

They sleep on mattresses on the floor of the La Modelo jail, where they are placed together in a high-security wing with leftist political prisoners, most of them suspected Farc rebels.

The prisoners are not held in cells instead they share a common area with basic cooking facilities and bathrooms on one floor of the wing.

Members of right-wing paramilitary groups – enemies of the left-wingers – are on the floor right above them. The three fear an attack by them or other militia members throughout the jail.

“The chances of these three men surviving are very, very slim if they are convicted,” said Hill.

The delegation also had meetings scheduled with officials from the Colombian justice ministry, Red Cross and the United Nations.

This segment of the trial is scheduled to last three days. The next portion of the trial will likely be scheduled for January, lawyers said.

Trials in Colombia are not held continuously until completed. Lawyers work on various cases at the same time, and it is customary for a trial to take place in small segments over a period of months.