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Colombia Three lobby ‘blocked’
22 October 2001 --
CAMPAIGNERS for the ‘Colombia Three’ last night accused the authorities in
Bogota of deliberately hindering the defence team representing the three Irish
suspects. ‘Bring Them Home’ campaign head Caitriona Ruane and solicitor Peter
Madden had been due to travel to South America on Saturday, but cancelled the
trip at the last minute due to administrative hold-ups. The two campaigners had
originally requested permission to travel to the San Vicente de Caguan region of
Colombia – the zone the three Irish suspects visited prior to their detention by
the Colombian authorities. However, the campaigners received a letter on Friday
saying their request had been turned down. Last night, Ms Ruane said she was
increasingly concerned for the safety of Martin McCauley, James Monaghan and
Niall Connolly. The three were arrested by the Colombian military on August 11
and are accused of training members of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC). The men deny the claim but admit they were travelling on false
passports. They are currently being held in a police compound after being moved
from Bogota’s notorious Modelo jail. Martin McCauley (39), originally from
Lurgan, was wounded in 1982 during an attack on a hay-shed by RUC officers. The
father-of-three, who was Sinn Fein director of elections in Upper Bann during
the 1996 forum election, was the only survivor of the alleged shoot-to-kill
operation. Donegal-born James Monaghan is a former member of Sinn Fein’s ard
comhairle, who was jailed in the 1970s for planting incendiary devices in shops
and businesses. He was later jailed for firearms possession. In July 1976 he
escaped from Dublin special criminal court with three other IRA suspects after a
double bomb blast caused chaos. Fluent Spanish speaker Niall Connolly (36), from
Dublin, “facilitated visits by Sinn Fein delegations to Cuba”, according to the
campaign but has “never been a member of any political party”. Sinn Fein has
dismissed claims by the Cuban government that Mr Connolly represented the party
in Havana. Following the eleventh hour cancellation of the Colombia trip, Ms
Ruane accused the Bogota authorities of deliberately hindering the efforts of
the defence team. “We had requested permission from the high commissioner for
peace in Colombia two weeks ago in which we stated what days we would be
travelling,” she said “Five days after we requested permission the president of
the country went on TV to say that foreigners can now only go into that part of
the country with special permission.” Ms Ruane said it was essential that the
suspects’ defence team was allowed access to the San Vincente de Caguan zone in
order to verify the investigation being carried out by the Colombian
authorities. “It’s the job of the Colombian prosecutor to find evidence for and
against these men and we needed to know if he has gone to the zone and talked to
people. But there’s no point in going if we can’t do what we’re supposed to do.”
Ms Ruane also claimed that the three men’s Colombian legal team was being
obstructed. “We have spoken to our defence team and it seems they are being
thwarted at every turn,” she said. “The lawyers have had their lives threatened
by right-wing paramilitaries and they still haven’t got full book of evidence.
“It appears some newspapers have more legal papers than the defence team.” Ms
Ruane said she had briefed the Irish government on the developments and was
hopeful of travelling to Colombia shortly.
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