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Colombia: IRA suspects go on trial
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- The trial of three Irishmen accused of training Colombian Communist rebels has begun in Bogota -- without the defendants. Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan, who were arrested in August 2001 after spending several weeks in a guerrilla safe haven in the south of the country, declined to attend the hearing on Monday saying they could not hope to receive a fair trial.
Former Provisional IRA members McCauley and Monaghan have both served time in British prisons for IRA-linked attacks. Connolly was a representative for the IRA's political ally Sinn Fein in Cuba. If convicted on charges of training guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and entering Colombia on false passports, the trio could face up 20 years in prison here. The arrest of the men and the subsequent controversy over their presence in rebel territory has heaped additional pressure on Northern Ireland's slow-moving peace process and power-sharing efforts. It also hampered efforts by Sinn Fein to improve relations with the U.S. administration given that the FARC, Latin America's largest surviving 1960s rebel force, is classed by Washington as the "biggest terrorist threat in the western hemisphere." Colombian authorities allege the Irish trio came to the country, trained the FARC in new terror tactics, and helped them prepare for urban combat in an effort to bring the country's 37-year-old war from the countryside into the main cities. They say the men may have been paid as mercenaries or may have received drug consignments in return for their services. Caitriona Ruane, a spokeswoman for the men's defense team and head of a solidarity committee, insisted Connolly, Monaghan and McCauley had come to Colombia to study the peace process between guerrillas and the government. Sinn Fein has tried to disassociate itself from the men saying they did not come to the country on official Sinn Fein business. Senior FARC commander Jorge Suárez Briceño, alias "El Mono Jojoy," the organization's top strategist who is wanted for extradition by the United States, has told CNN he met the Irishmen in 2001 but declined to elaborate on the purpose of their visit. Another top FARC official, Raul Reyes, then leading peace talks that ultimately failed, said the men had been exchanging views on the peace efforts of Northern Ireland and Colombia. The trial was adjourned until Monday afternoon after defense lawyers rejected prosecution attempts to call defense witnesses first, contrary to normal procedure. Judge Jairo Acosta warned the trial may be delayed as the prosecution struggled to obtain witness statements from two witnesses now living abroad and from a guerrilla deserter who is now under government protection. Officials said the trial could last months and court proceedings will probably be interrupted for several weeks around Christmas. The men's arrest in August last year as they tried to fly out of Bogota airport with false passports put strains on the Northern Irish peace process and angered the United States, which regards the FARC as drug smuggling "terrorists". The army has blamed the IRA for new advances shown in recent FARC attacks in Colombia's cities, including a mortar bombardment during President Alvaro Uribe's swearing-in ceremony in August, which killed more than 20 people, including many homeless beggars. A lobby group has been set up in Ireland to campaign for the release of the three men. Among those attending the trial on Monday was Paul Hill, from Belfast, who suffered a famous miscarriage of justice in Britain when he was wrongly convicted as one of the "Guildford Four" at the height of an IRA bombing campaign in England in the 1970s. "As a victim of an unfair trial, I want to do everything to ensure that the same thing does not happen to these three Irishmen," he said in a statement. A group of about 20 protesters who said they were relatives of Colombian servicemen killed in combat stood outside the courthouse shouting that the men were "foreign terrorists."
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