Observers at the trial of three Irishmen on terrorist and passport charges have asked the Colombian government for guarantees that prosecution witnesses will be in court when the hearing resumes on February 5th.
The trial of Mr James Monaghan (56), Mr Martin McCauley (40) and Mr Niall Connolly (36), who are charged with training FARC rebels in bomb-making and with using false passports, was adjourned when two FARC deserters failed to turn up to give evidence against them. One witness was afraid to travel by road but no air transport was made available to him; the other could not be located, despite being part of a state witness-protection programme.
The observers, whose visit to Bogota was organised by the Bring Them Home campaign, met for an hour yesterday with Colombia's Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ms Clemenzia Forrero. Among those present were TDs Mr Finian McGrath (Independent) and Mr Seán Crowe (Sinn Féin); Mr Paul Hill of the Guildford Four; two Dublin-based lawyers, Mr Patrick Daly and Mr Ronan Munro, and Ms Caitriona Ruane from the campaign. A similar meeting was held with the Vice-Minister for Justice, Ms Azuleta last Friday.
Ms Ruane said they raised the issue of pre-trial publicity with Ms Forrero, including statements imputing guilt by a former president of Colombia and by the head of the country's armed forces. "The case was contaminated before it even went to trial," she said.
Ms Ruane, speaking before the group's departure on a flight back to Dublin, continued: "We raised the issue of the fact that the state witnesses did not attend, we asked for guarantees that they would attend and we are now following up the meeting with a letter to her requesting a report on the steps taken to ensure the attendance of state witnesses by her department."
Meanwhile, it has emerged that a book produced in evidence at the court this week, which was at first thought to be an IRA training manual, was in fact another volume issued 23 years ago.
The Weapons of Terror: International Terrorism at Work is by Christopher Dobson and Ronald Payne, two authors who specialise in this subject and who have no connections with Irish republicanism. Published by Macmillan of London in 1979, the book is out of print but copies are available through the Internet.
A major from Colombian military intelligence produced the book in court as an English-language counterpart of two manuals in Spanish, at least one of them handwritten, that were allegedly found after an attack on FARC rebels.
The Spanish-language manuals were said to contain instruction on how to make gas-cylinder bombs similar to the ones used in Northern Ireland by the IRA.
The disorganised nature of the proceedings in the case this week are considered deeply embarrassing to the relevant Colombian authorities. There is a widespread perception that it has not been pursued with proper efficiency and that the evidence produced so far is weak.
However, long-time observers of the Colombian scene said senior establishment figures would be loath to drop the charges despite claims by the accused men that they were merely tourists learning about the Colombian peace process. Nevertheless questions are being raised about the credibility of the proceedings and how long the trial can be allowed to continue unless firm evidence is produced and the prosecution is properly organised.