FARC attack had hallmarks of IRA operation

Colombia's chief prosecutor has said that IRA training may have been behind a recent FARC attack where dozens of people were killed.

In an interview with the BBC, Luis Camilo Osorio said that a FARC attack, which resulted in 115 deaths, was carried out with mortars similar to those used by the IRA. Mr Osorio said that "these are techniques we are certain were taught by this group".

The Colombian prosecutor was speaking on the anniversary of the arrest of Niall Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin McCauley – three Irishmen travelling on false passports who were arrested by Colombian authorities as they stepped off a flight from a FARC-controlled safe haven.

The authorities contend that the men are IRA activists involved in exchanging intelligence and testing weapons in the jungle.

Sinn Fein chairman Mitchel McLaughlin hit out at those comments, describing them as a "disgrace".

Mr McLaughlin said that the three men "are facing a trial in a society which does not have a great reputation of respect for human rights".

He added: "I believe their possibility of receiving a fair trial has already been significantly damaged and has been further damaged by that interview with the prosecutor general.

Catriona Ruane, a spokesperson for the campaign to repatriate the men – Bring Them Home – said: "His comments are very serious given he is the senior judicial figure and he should not be making any public comments about the case."

In April this year the chairman of the Colombian Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Fernando Tapias, told the US House of International Relations Committee that he believed at least seven Irish nationals were in the South American country at various times last year working with members of FARC.

At the same meeting, US State Department Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism Mark Wong testified that FARC "urban terror tactics that are similar to those employed by the IRA".

General Tapias said he believed that two of the incarcerated men were senior IRA activists, but he pointed out that he could not confirm whether the men were operating in an official capacity on behalf of the IRA.

A report by the committee also quoted British Intelligence sources' belief that "although there is no hard evidence", the IRA may have been paid as much as "$2 million for the explosives training they provided to the FARC".

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams declined an invitation to testify at this meeting. However, in a letter to the committee chairman he reaffirmed his belief that Sinn Fein had no knowledge of the men's activity.

But just one day before the IRA's first act of decommissioning, and six weeks after the September 11 terror attacks, Sinn Fein revealed that Niall Connolly was the party's contact in Cuba.

(GMcG)