SEAN LOVE,
Madam, - Could I please be allowed to correct a misrepresentation of Amnesty International by Mr Cormac Breatnach (November 20th).
He claims that Amnesty International is failing to serve its own best interests by not sending an observer to the trial of three Irish nationals in Colombia. Sadly, the issue of fair trials is just one of the myriad of human rights abuses occurring in that country in the context of its 'dirty war'.
Torture, extrajudicial killings, "disappearances" are a daily reality and the international community has done little to address the mounting crisis. There are hundreds of detainees in Colombia (let alone in the rest of the world) - mostly peasant farmers - who are unlikely to get fair trials in the coming months.
While Amnesty will not be sending observers to these court proceedings, including those of the "Colombia Three", we are closely monitoring these trials.
Amnesty has already made its concerns on the men's rights, and their personal safety while imprisoned, very clear to the relevant authorities.
We have serious doubts about their chances of receiving a fair trial and have campaigned to defend one of their lawyers, Agustín Jiménez Cuello, from recent death threats. In fact, Agustín's organisation has had lawyers killed and "disappeared" before with practically no international outcry.
When you add the death threat to the fact that senior Colombian officials have already declared the three men guilty, one can rightly ask how they can receive a fair trial.
We are and we will monitor the three men's detention and trial closely, through their lawyers. If Amnesty had the resources to despatch legal experts to every corner of the world where there was a suspicion of an unfair trial we would gladly do so.
At least in the case of these three men they should have independent international observers via the Department of Foreign Affairs, and from the Dáil, and warranted international scrutiny of the Colombian legal process.
What should come out of their trial is a recognition by this country's representatives that human rights abuses in Colombia are an international concern and that the rights of these three men and all Colombians must be upheld. - Yours, etc.,
SEAN LOVE, Director, Amnesty International Irish Section, Fleet Street, Dublin 2.