Republican News · Thursday 28 November 2002

Lawyers, politicians and human rights activists join Colombia delegation

Spokesperson for the Bring Them Home Campaign, Caitríona Ruane, announced on Wednesday the makeup of the delegation that will be going to Colombia to observe the trial of the three Irishmen currently detained in El Modelo, Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan.

The delegation includes parliamentarians Senator Mary White (Fianna Fáil); Seán Crowe, TD (Sinn Féin), and Finian McGrath TD (Independent). They will be joined by Irish lawyers Pat Daly and Ronan Munro; Australian lawyer Shaun Kerrigan; and Frank Durkan and Cody McCone, lawyers from the Brehon Law Society in New York. Human rights activist Paul Hill (Guildford 4) and author and prominent Belfast republican Danny Morrison will also join the delegation. Caitríona Ruane, Bring Them Home spokesperson, will accompany the delegation to Colombia.

They will be spending a week in Colombia and have requested meetings with senior members of the Colombian government, the prosecution, the defence, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, the International Red Cross, and the Ombudsman's office. They will also visit the three men in the notorious El Modelo jail in Bogota and observe this stage of the trial, which begins on 2 December and ends on 5 December.

The Bring Them Home Campaign has consistently outlined the difficulties of the men getting a fair trial.

Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe said: "I was very pleased to be asked by the Bring Them Home Campaign to visit Colombia. There is a very real danger that these men are not going to be allowed a fair trial but are going to be used as pawns in the political process both here and in Colombia and by attending the trial with other TDs and human rights campaigners we can show the Colombian judiciary that the Irish people will not let these men be used and endangered. The media has done all it can to insult and denigrate these men but I am proud to call Jim Monaghan, a longtime resident in my constituency, a friend of mine."

Amnesty International has said that it will be closely monitoring the trial. "Amnesty has already made its concerns on the men's rights, and their personal safety while imprisoned, very clear to the relevant authorities," said Irish Amnesty spokesperson Sean Love. "We have serious doubts about their chances of receiving a fair trial and have campaigned to defend one of their lawyers, Agustin Jimenez Cuello, from recent death threats."

Caitríona Ruane, spokesperson for the campaign, said: 'International attention is essential to ensure the safety of the men, they are currently housed in one of the most dangerous jails in Colombia."

Gerry Monaghan, brother of Jim Monaghan said "We are very concerned about Jim, Martin and Niall. There is no safe place in Colombia for them. The three families would like to thank the group travelling to Colombia and we hope that our loved ones come home to their families soon."

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STAND UP AND BE COUNTED

Speaking at a well attended Bring Them Home fundraising and information event on the situation in Colombia held in Dublin last weekend, former Beirut hostage Brian Keenan said:

"The first casualty of any war, even a 21st century war, is truth and justice. In such a scenario human rights, individual and collective, usually dissolve into a litany of human abuses hidden behind smokescreens of politics, national sovereignty, and other agendas being scripted in small rooms by faceless committees. More than ever now human rights are the concern of everyone, our conscience requires each of us to stand up and be counted. Silence and indifference are the well loved tools of all those who conspire against justice, truth, human dignity and even the right to life itself'."

Paul Hill (Guildford Four) said that "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 as happened to me. I spent 15 years in an English jail before the British Government acknowledged that a miscarriage of justice had occurred. I am honoured to join with this delegation.

"If courageous people like this had stood up for my rights I may not have had 15 years stolen from me. I have worked with Amnesty International for several years and I have been disturbed by their reports on Colombia. In particular, I share their concerns on the judicial process."