Colombia Three ‘trained rebels in mortar use’

THREE Irishmen gave instructions on explosives and mortars, and lessons on the use of car bombs, a key witness told a Colombian court yesterday.

Wearing a bullet-proof shirt and flanked by armed guards, Edwin Giovanny Rodriguez, a jailed Marxist guerrilla, told the court he saw three foreigners training rebels and testing weapons. James Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley were arrested in August, 2001, at Bogota’s airport. They have been accused of training Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas and of travelling on false passports.

Rodriguez said he was in charge of driving and guarding one of the men, whom he described as a middle-aged, white-haired man who didn’t speak much, if any, Spanish. Though Rodriguez did not identify him directly, it appeared he was referring to Mr Monaghan, who fits that description.

“I saw him frequently because I was responsible for taking him to the room where he was teaching,” he said. Rodriguez said he saw the man and two other foreigners conducting training classes and then testing weapons inside the stronghold during three weeks in February. Rodriguez said he worked directly for Jorge Briceno, alias Mono Jojoy, the military commander of FARC.

He said Briceno and Manuel Marulanda, FARC high commander, were among a group of rebels who accompanied the three foreigners to the village of Los Pozos to test various explosives, including homemade surface-to-air missiles.

The judge in the case asked Rodriguez for the names of the men, but he said he was illiterate and had trouble understanding foreign names. Rodriguez, jailed on charges of being a member of the FARC, had refused to testify earlier this week, saying he feared for his life. The judge ordered he and his family be placed in a witness protection programme.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has said Connolly was the Latin American representative for the party.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen yesterday rejected calls to stop the trial of the three IRA suspects. Fianna Fáil Senator Mary White, in Colombia to observe the trial, said the minister should intervene and described the trial as a farce. Mr Cowen said he could not intervene as it was impossible to interfere in the legal process of another state.