Republican News · Thursday 1 November 2001

Support for Colombia Three

A very successful evening to raise money for the Colombia Three - Bring Them Home campaign was held at the Boora Inn, at Boora, Co Offaly on Thursday 27 October. An indication of tremendous support and concern around the country for Niall Connolly, Martin McAuley and Jim Monaghan was that some 80 people who attended the function raised over £400 for the campaign through a collection.

The evening at the Boora Inn in support of the prisoners was a family event organised by Jim Monaghan's sister Sile (pictured above), her husband Des and their two children, Caroline and Noel. In a very moving speech, Sile, speaking in her native Donegal Irish, talked of her great respect and love for her brother, Jim Monaghan, and her concern for the safety of the three men.

Caroline read a long message on behalf of the prisoners, by Johnny Connolly, where she talked of the appalling conditions in which they are held. Jim Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly are at present held in the Fiscalia military police holding centre in Bogota, in tiny cells measuring some 5' by 3', in solitary confinement for 23 hours day, with just one hour's exercise.

The inaccurate publicity which has surrounded their case from the time of their original arrest on 11 August has made the three vulnerable to attack from the armed right wing paramilitary groups in and outside of the jail. Their lives are in danger in a country where violence, murder, torture, disappearances, at the hands of death squads, working alongside of the military, are widespread and regular events. Since 1998, more than 25 defence lawyers and human rights defenders have been shot dead in Colombia.

The men are rarely allowed contact with each other, and contact with their lawyers is sparse. They are not allowed to be together to discuss their case and prepare their defence.

It was even reported in the Colombia media last week that the three Irish men "were engaged in mixing up anthrax spores with cocaine, whilst they were visiting the FARC zone in Colombia".

As Caitriona Ruane who co-ordinates the Colombia Three - Bring them Home Campaign has persistently pointed out, there is no prospect of a fair legal process for these men. As Caroline said in her speech in Boora: "Their freedom, even their very lives, relies on the support that the people in Ireland are able to build for the campaign to bring them home, and to end their appalling ordeal and the travesty of justice which this case represents."