There's little local sympathy for three Irishmen facing terrorist charges in Colombia, reports Deaglán de Breadún, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, from Bogotá. And the outcome of the trial, which resumes next week, has repercussions for the North's peace process.
Colombia is beautiful. Even from the aircraft you can see it is a land of rolling hills and mountains, some snow-covered, most garnished with lush green. As you climb towards Bogotá, the mountains give way to a flat emerald-green plain, criss-crossed with neat fields and very large farmhouses. The fields are like some of the neater parts of rural Ireland: Co Meath, perhaps, or the Golden Vale.
You emerge from the aircraft into the balmy air, surprisingly mild for a place so near to the Equator. But Bogotá's boast is that it is "2,600 metres closer to the stars".
Colombia is dangerous. For such a beautiful land with so many attractions, there are very few tourists at the airport. An ageing hippy from the British midlands gives me a funny look when he hears my Irish accent. I see the question in the man's face: what's he doing here? I am wondering the same thing about him.
Kidnappings in Colombia last year averaged eight a day. Several people have warned me within an inch of my life to take only officially-authorised taxis at the airport or in town because the kidnappers cruise around pretending to be cab-drivers, waiting for the unwary to hail them. It hardly needs to be said that many of those kidnapped are never seen again.
Unlike Dublin, taxis are easy to get and mine brings me safely to the hotel.
When I remark on the south Armagh-style security installation on an overlooking hill, I am told there is a "ring of steel" around the city. Marxist rebels are believed to have plans ultimately to try to seize the capital and there are reports that they already have several thousand undercover agents "in place".
Paranoid? You wouldn't think so if you saw the armed soldiers in combat gear patrolling the footpath outside the hotel.
One is glad to get inside, because the soldiers, as well as providing security, also increase the risk of, say, a sniper attack.
A photographer colleague says: "It's not the bullet with my name on it that worries me, it's the one that says, 'To whom it may concern'." There are more security personnel in the lobby, some in uniform, others in flashy suits, contributing to the Miami Vice feel of the place. In the background, a huge plastic model of Santa smiles blankly: can it really be the season of goodwill? Colombia is at war. Civilian deaths in the conflict were up to 3,500 last year (about equal to the entire death-toll in the Northern Ireland Troubles), and have exceeded 30,000 in the last decade. There are widespread human rights abuses. The forces of the state do not have control in many parts of the country.
Their authority is challenged by armed groups from left and right. The biggest is the 18,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known by its Spanish acronym of FARC). Also on the left is the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN), influenced by the revolutionary theologian, the late Camillo Torres, which has between 3,500 and 5,000 members. On the right, a variety of paramilitary organisations have come together as the United Self-Defence Groups of Colombia (AUC), with a total of about 12,000 people under arms.
It would be simplistic to say that inequality is the cause of the conflict, but glaring disparities of income are a feature of Colombian society: great wealth exists alongside grinding poverty in this sunny land. Such contrasts are an unfortunate feature of many countries, but there is an added ingredient here. Colombia is the cocaine capital of the world. Some 80 per cent of the cocaine consumed in the US and Europe comes from here.
Vast fortunes have been made out of the drugs trade, and the cartels based in the cities of Medellin and Cali have become known and feared throughout the world. Political life has been seriously infected by the corrupting influence of the drug barons who have also been buying up many of the old landed estates, converting their drugs money into property.
The right-wing paramilitaries often function as an arm of the drug dealers or even the legitimate business community to keep down left-wing rebels, agitators and trade unionists. Assassination and massacre are favourite tactics. The left is also wedded to extremely violent methods and members of the police and armed forces have also been guilty of serious violations of human rights. Given the prevalence of coca leaf cultivation in Colombia, disputes over territory are also disputes over the raw material from which cocaine is made. FARC has benefited from the drug trade by imposing a war-levy on producers in the areas it controls.
According to the Colombian Ministry of Defence, between January and November last year, right-wing paramilitaries killed 1,105 civilians and 1,075 civilians were killed by left-wing rebels, mainly from FARC.
While most of the human rights abuses are attributed to the right- and left-wing paramilitaries and guerrillas, government forces have also been severely criticised and concern has been expressed about the failure of the Colombian state to prosecute abusers in the security forces more successfully.
In July 1998, President-elect Andres Pastrana announced he had held secret peace talks with Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, septuagenarian leader of FARC. Ultimately, a tract of territory about the size of Switzerland was designated as a demilitarised zone and came effectively under the control of FARC. Efforts to achieve a full peace settlement were hindered by continuing violence and divisions within the government.
Many people, including a number of well-known politicians, paid visits to the FARC zone. On August 11th last year, three men who were on their way out of Colombia after such a visit, were arrested at Bogotá's El Dorado Airport.
It is alleged they were travelling on false passports, but it is not clear why suspicions of the Colombian authorities were aroused and there is speculation that agents within the FARC zone or a foreign intelligence service may have alerted them to the trio's imminent departure from the country.
Two of them were alleged to be travelling on false British passports, the third allegedly on a false Irish one. Following inquiries to the British embassy, it quickly emerged that two of the men were James Monaghan and Martin McCauley, both well-known Irish republicans with previous convictions. The third was named initially as "David Bracken" but was later indetified as Niall Connolly, a Dubliner living in Cuba. Despite initial denials from Sinn Féin, he turned out to be the party's official representative to the Cuban government. He was the only Spanish-speaker in the group.
The trio claimed to be tourists with an interest in the Colombian peace process. The Colombian military contacted the US embassy in Bogotá and a member of the embassy staff carried out a forensic examination, using his own equipment, and reported traces of explosives and drugs on the men's clothing. This was done before contacting the Colombian judicial authorities and this forensic test was later deemed inadmissible as evidence.
Newspaper reports soon began to appear, usually citing unnamed security sources who alleged the three men were senior Provisionals from the IRA's "engineering department" who were teaching FARC how to conduct a bombing campaign in urban areas. But there were indications in the first few weeks that the case might be dropped and Monaghan, McCauley and Connolly put on a plane out of El Dorado with the injunction never to return.
That was before September 11th. A startled US administration suddenly awoke to the depth and extent of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and international terrorism generally. Any incident with the slightest whiff of terrorism came to be looked at in a newlight. The new international climate was reflected on the ground in Colombia. The three Irishmen remained in prison while the investigation continued.
The Colombian legal system is an inquisitorial rather than adversarial one, not unlike its French counterpart. An official prosecutor assembles evidence for and against the accused and, after a year, presents the findings to a judge who decides whether the case should go to trial or not.
Supporters of the three detained men complain that they have been kept in hazardous conditions. It is true that prison in Colombia is not a good place to be. The trio are currently incarcerated in La Modelo prison in Bogota which was the scene, in July 2001, of an armed battle between left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries, which left 10 people killed and 23 injured.
An earlier battle, in April 2000, left 27 dead and 43 wounded.
The news media in Colombia are far from sympathetic to the three Irish prisoners. Recognition of the FARC demilitarised zone was withdrawn last February and the war is back on again in earnest. Comparisons between FARC and IRA tactics are frequently drawn and there are claims that FARC learnt how to make the gas-cylinder bomb (known as the "barrack-buster") from the IRA.
The judge in the case, Jairo Acosta, has decided that the case should go to trial. There is no jury and he will make the final judgment on the men's guilt or innocence of the charges they face: the major one of training terrorists and the lesser charge of using false passports. If found guilty of terrorist training, the "Colombia Three" could face sentences of 20 years. The passport violation would probably be dealt with by deportation. Already a number of Colombian public figures have expressed a very strong opinion that they are guilty and should be put away for the longest possible time. On Monday, when the case re-opens, there will probably be about 100 demonstrators outside the court in Bogotá, saying much the same thing.
Despite reports of pressure on the judiciary in Colombia to come up with the result the establishment desires in particular cases, Judge Acosta has behaved in a proper professional manner.
The prosecution case appears to be based mainly on evidence from FARC deserters who say they saw one or more of the three accused giving bombmaking instructions. The credibility or otherwise of these witnesses will clearly be of great importance.
The defence will also seek to challenge the forensic evidence, which always seems to be a difficult aspect of Irish republican trials.
A group of observers and monitors from Dublin arrived in Bogotá on Thursday evening. The planned group of four TDs and two Senators has now been reduced to two TDs and one Senator. The Labour parliamentary party decided that its justice spokesman, Joe Costello, should not travel; the Fianna Fáil TD, John Curran and Senator Paul Bradford have also withdrawn. However, Sinn Féin TD, Sean Crowe and Independent TD, Finian McGrath, are now in Colombia and will be observing the trial. Senator Mary White of Fianna Fáil is expected to arrive today. The group also includes the former Sinn Féin director of publicity, Danny Morrison and former Long Kesh hunger-striker, Dr Laurence McKeown. A late addition was Paul Hill, one of the Guildford Four, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 15 years before he was released as an innocent man.
This is one of the most important cases since the Northern Ireland Troubles began over 30 years ago. Its outcome will affect the peace process in the North and the attitude of both the US government and the Irish-American community to that process in general and Sinn Féin in particular. It will have far-reaching implications which may also affect political life in the Republic, so sensitive to developments in the North. And there will be political and security fall-out in Colombia too, the beautiful land where peace remains a very distant dream.
The path to trial
August 11th, 2001: Three men allegedly holding false passports are arrested at Bogotá airport. They are identified as Irish republicans James Monaghan (56, top right), Martin McCauley (39, centre) and Niall Connolly (36, below), who had travelled from the area of Colombia which was controlled at the time by left-wing FARC rebels. It is claimed that initial forensic tests showed traces of explosives on their clothing. Amid allegations that the men were instructing FARC operatives in bomb-making skills, the "Colombia Three" are held in detention while an official investigation is launched into their activities in the country.
September 11th, 2001: Attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon fuel US-led drive against terrorism
everywhere, including Colombia and Northern Ireland.
July 2002: US Senate report, compiled by Republican Party staff on the Foreign Relations Committee, claims a new urban bombing campaign by FARC with high civilian casualties stems from Provisional IRA training.
October 16th, 2002: Judge Jairo Acosta rules that the three men will stand trial on charges of using false passports and "instructing guerrillas in the manufacture of bombs, detonation of explosive artefacts and the planning of terrorist attacks".
The accused men refuse to appear in court, claiming that they will not get a fair trial.
December 2nd, 2002: Trial due to resume in Bogotá, to hear evidence on both sides. Judge Acosta is expected to give his final ruling in about six months. If found guilty of terrorist training, the accused could get 20 years.