From: "Stasi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Peoples War] Colombia: British Military Contacts In Bogota Revealed The Irish Times 1) British military contacts in Bogota revealed 2) FARC leader says trio there to discuss views Thursday, August 23, 2001 1) British military contacts in Bogota revealed ---------------------------------------------- By Jim Cusack, Security Editor The British army and government have been assisting the Colombian authorities since August last year or earlier in pursuing a peace deal with the FARC guerrillas in Colombia. It is now alleged that the armed revolutionaries have been receiving assistance from the IRA. The three Irishmen detained in Bogota are to face charges relating to alleged training in explosives. Wider links between Northern Ireland and the situation in that country are now emerging. The Colombian general in charge of the arrest of the three men in Bogota last week visited Northern Ireland last year, the British army press office has confirmed. Two former general officers commanding (GOCs) in Northern Ireland visited Colombia last year as part of a British assistance programme, along with the former Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Dr Mo Mowlam. Dr Mowlam visited Colombia on a number of occasions in the past year in her capacity as the British government minister responsible for tackling the drugs trade. Dr Mowlam also gave advice in pursuing a peace process in Colombia based on her experience as a central figure in the peace process in Northern Ireland. The British army press office said the visits by the former GOCs - Sir Michael Rose and Sir Roger Wheeler - were part of a "human rights" initiative by the former NI Secretary. The British Foreign Office also attempted to assist in a peace process in Colombia. A senior diplomat met the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) last year to discuss human rights and alternatives to drug production. According to Garda sources, the IRA has, simultaneously, been assisting FARC by supplying it with Semtex and expertise in bomb-making. It has also emerged that Colombia's Gen Jorge Mora visited Belfast last August and met senior security officials. Yesterday the SDLP joined the criticism of Sinn F�in arising from the events in Colombia. Mr Eddie McGrady of the SDLP said Sinn F�in had many questions to answer about the Colombian affair. "What is going on? Why were these men there? Were they being paid for their time? What were they being paid in? Were drugs involved? Where was that payment going? Would innocent Colombian lives be lost as a result of this liaison?" Thursday, August 23, 2001 2) FARC leader says trio there to discuss views ------------------------------------------------- The leader of Colombia's FARC leftist rebel army has claimed three alleged IRA members charged with providing weapons training had in fact visited FARC-controlled territory to exchange views. Mr Manuel Marulanda, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), told the Voz weekly that the three men - whom he described as Sinn F�in representatives - had visited the FARC-controlled area south of the capital "to exchange views, to get to know a life that is very different but also important, as they themselves acknowledged. They also told us about their struggle and their peace process," added the FARC leader, who is in his 70s. No weapons or explosives training had been provided by the men, whose visit had been an activity which comes under the FARC's international relations, he said. Mr Marulanda described the three, who are now being held by the Colombian authorities, as representatives of Sinn F�in. The three men, Mr Martin McCauley, Mr James Monaghan and Mr Niall Connolly, were arrested on August 11th at Bogota's international airport. The Colombian chief prosecutor's office has announced that the three had been charged with assisting illegal activities and using false documents. The men are being held at a military post but will shortly be turned over to the national prisons agency which will designate where they will be held. The authorities have up to eight months to initiate court proceedings and present evidence against the three. Before being arrested, they had spent five weeks in the FARC-controlled zone, according to the authorities. Mr Marulanda told Voz , the official publication of the Colombian Communist Party, that a visit by an international delegation to this zone was not unusual. The FARC had received visits there from various political movements and parties from Europe and Latin America, as well as from people such as the president of the New York Stock Exchange and the queen [Noor] of Jordan, he said. "There is no one we refuse to talk to." Mr Marulanda said the arrest of the three men, and the highprofile charges brought against them, should be seen in the context of the upcoming expiry in October of the current authorisation for the FARC to control its demilitarised zone. "It is nothing new that every time the authorisation for the demilitarised zone is due to expire these set-ups by [Colombian] military intelligence appear. The bad thing is that they don't just affect the peace process with the FARC, but also with the IRA, in Northern Ireland, where there has been a truce for two years," Mr Marulanda said. - (AFP) "A revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past." Fidel Castro "The Marxist-Leninist doctrine on class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat affirms the role of violence in revolution, makes a distinction between unjust, counter-revolutionary violence and just, revolutionary violence, between the violence of the exploiting classes, and that of the masses." General Vo Nguyen Giap "Without a Peoples Army the people have nothing" Mao Tse-Tung _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
