Feature: Interview with Caitriona Ruane
Caitriona Ruane of the Bring Them Home Campaign works on
behalf of the Colombia 3, three Irishmen held in jail for over
three years while on trial for aiding rebels in Colombia's
civil war. Here she gives an overview of how the case has been
used for political ends in an interview with Toni Solo, an
activist based in Central America.
Solo: Why do you think the charges against the 3 were not
dropped given the lack of evidence?
Ruane: I think it was obvious to the Attorney General, Luis
Camilo Osorio and his prosecutors that there never was any
evidence against the three men, these men should never have
been brought to trial. They should have been sent home two
years ago. The only reason the charges against the Niall
Connolly, Jim Monaghan and Martin McCauley were not dropped is
that the Attorney General's office in Colombia fabricated a
case against the men and now cannot admit it. Luis Camilo
Osorio has brought the office of the Attorney General into
disrepute. Every human rights organisation that monitors the
situation in Colombia agrees, his role in this and countless
other cases prejudices the rule of law and justice in
Colombia. I recommend people read Human Rights Watch, United
Nations, Amnesty International and other human rights reports
to see for themselves the terrible role of the Attorney
General's office.
The role of the Procuraduria's (Solicitor General's) office
has been particularly disppointing in this case. They called
for a conviction of the three men, knowing full well that
there is no evidence. In January 2002, I travelled with former
Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, David Andrews and Sile
Maguire of the Irish Diplomatic Corps and we met with the head
of the Procuraduria. He assured us that their organisation
would monitor the trial and ensure it would be fair. They have
not done that. If there is a miscarriage of justice in this
case they are as responsible as the Attorney General's office.
Solo: Do you think the 3 have had a fair trial?
Ruane: No, These men should never even have been brought to
trial, there is no evidence to substantiate the training of
terrorists charge. During the investigative stage of the legal
process, the men's rights were totally violated. The
prosecutor is supposed to look for evidence for and against
the men, they did not do this. In total violation of due
process they failed even to interview defence witnesses. It
was obvious from the very early stages of this farce that the
military were schooling witnesses in their military barracks.
Fortunately for the three men, these witnesses were not
schooled very well and their inconsistencies, and lies were
exposed in the court in front of the world media. The defence
provided the court with three videos of Jim Monaghan filmed in
Ireland at precisely the time one of the witnesses says that
he saw the three men training the FARC forces opposed to the
government. This legal process was a farce from start to
finish.
Now the trial is over. We are waiting for the decision from
the judge and we are calling on the Colombian Government to
ensure that the judge can make a decision based on the
evidence presented to his court, free from political pressure
from the executive and the military. If this case was heard in
any court that respects due process it would have been thrown
out months ago and the men would be home with their family
where they should be.
Solo: Do you agree that the case fits into a wider context?
Ruane: I think that the Colombian Government fabricated this
case, so they could get more aid from the US and claim that
the conflict in Colombia is not a civil war but an
international ``terrorist'' conspiracy. Ex-president Andres
Pastrana prejudiced the men's case in an article written while
he was in Washington. He used the false accusations against
the three men to try and get more funds for Colombia. The
current president Uribe prejudiced the case when he referred
to the three men in a Newsweek article while trying to gain
more funds to fight the civil war in Colombia.
The case of the three men was also used by elements of British
Intelligence and anti peace process unionists to try and
destabilise the peace process in Ireland. It is important to
say that the three men are suppporters of the peace process
and have publicly stated that in a declaration to the court.
The case was also used by the Colombian army and elements who
were against the peace process in Colombia.
Solo: What has been your experience of media reporting of the
case?
Ruane: When the men were arrested two years ago, the
intelligence services in Ireland, Britain, the US and Colombia
went into overdrive and made unsubstantiated, bizarre and
unbelievable allegations. It subsequently transpired that none
of these allegations were true but unfortunately investigative
journalism went out the window and journalists published them
verbatim without even verifying their sources or stories. It
was a shameful time for many ``reputable'' news organisations.
This continued right through the first 18 months of the men's
incarceration. It began to change once the trial began in
December 2002. Very quickly it became obvious to all the press
in the court and the international observers that there was no
case against these men and the manipulation and fabrication
was too much for most of the journalists present to take
seriously. Since then they have stopped using unsubstantiated
intelligence reports and reported the trial more accurately.
Having said that many of their editors have not given
sufficient prominence to the story, after covering it very
prominently to start with.
Early on, BBC's local North of Ireland service was guilty of
taking intelligence reports and unsubstantiated reports
without even verifying their stories. That said, they have
covered the actual trial fairly and were very professional
reporting that part of the story. They also sent a team to do
a documentary which was broadcast two or three months after
the men were arrested and it exposed the faulty US forensics
in the case.
British Independent Channel 4, which has a reputation for
``fair journalism'' commissioned a documentary which was an
absolute disgrace--it was one of the worst I have seen in the
two years and for me it was disappointing to see Channel 4
stoop to such low levels. In general, the English media
networks are more or less ignoring the story now after the
initial hysterical coverage and one cannot help feel that this
is because it is not going well for the prosecution and they
would look bad having to admit their initial stories were
baseless.
Irish State TV company RTE covered the trial fairly and sent
their senior reporter to the trial, they also showed the video
of Jim Monaghan giving a talk on peace and reconciliation in
Belfast that discredited one of the prosecution witnesses who
said he was training the FARC forces opposing the government.
But I would like to see RTE and BBC take a much stronger
stance. It is obvious to everyone that there is no case, and
that these men should be at home with their families. This is
obviously an editorial decision, not a decision for individual
journalists and I would call on the senior editorial staff of
RTE and BBC to give this case more prominence and call a spade
a spade. They should also be supporting calls for the men to
be sent home.
I feel that a lot of the world's media is ignoring the story
because they are being ``advised'' to by intelligence
services--if this case was going well for the prosecution
there would be much more coverage of it. The men had already
been declared guilty by most of the media. Now that everyone
can see there is no case, the same media have fallen silent.
Solo: What is your opinion of the handling of the case by the
governments involved?
Ruane: Well, the Irish Government has worked closely with the
Bring Them Home Campaign. International observers and myself
have had meetings with the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister)
Bertie Ahern and the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Brian
Cowen). They have quietly lobbied the Colombian Government and
at times have made the odd public statement about the case.
They have sent their Ambassador to Colombia who has observed
every stage of the trial. The Irish Government know at every
level that there is no evidence against these men.
While I commend their quiet work--I feel that they have not
stood up for the rights of Irish citizens in the way they
should have. They are far too timid when faced with ``powerful''
governments and they need to be making more public statements.
It is their job to represent Irish citizens and stand up for
their rights. They are not doing this sufficiently and we are
calling on them to be more vocal. I would recommend that they
study the way Britain helped its citizens in Greece and Saudi
Arabia and perhaps take a leaf out of Tony Blair's book.
In Colombia ex-president Pastrana and current president Uribe,
as well as the Attorney General and the Head of the Armed
forces have interfered in this case in a shameful way. This is
hardly surprising since they tacitly support the excesses of
the Colombian Armed Forces. In this case, they co-operated
with a US Senate Foreign Relations hearing which violated all
international norms. They used this case to destroy a very
important peace process in Colombia and have illegally
detained the three Irishmen for 25 months now.
In Britain, Tony Blair made prejudicial comments about this
case from the start, he permitted his intelligence services a
free run spinning, lying and manipulating this case to try and
destroy the peace process in Ireland. He used the case of the
three men to justify his decision to unilaterally cancel
elections in the North of Ireland because they were afraid of
what the result might be. His role in this case is shameful
and continues to be.
The US government interfered directly in a legal case in a
foreign country. One of their embassy officials carried out a
forensic test on the men's clothing and belongings in a
Colombian military barracks. At trial, this test was
discredited by an internationally renowned forensic expert Dr.
Keith Borer. Official US intervention in this case has been
highly irregular and in breach of international law.
For example, the US senate foreign relations committee held
hearings in this case before the trial even started and
allowed a Colombian general to reel off his personal opinions.
Fortunately most Republican and Democrat Senators and
Representatives saw this for what it was and criticised the
hearings. When questioned the general was asked for evidence
to back up his accusations against the men--which of course he
was unable to do.
Since then the US government has been very quiet on the case
with the exception of Richard Hass who said that the men are
entitled to a fair trial. We are calling on the US government
who are providing billions of dollars in military aid to the
Colombian goverment to call for independence of the judiciary
so the trial judge is free to make a decision based on the
evidence presented to his court without political and military
intimidation.
Solo: What has been the response from ordinary people and from
non- governmental organizations?
Ruane: The response from ordinary people in Ireland, Europe,
the United States, Latin America, Australia has been
incredible and it is what has kept us going. International
observers, politicians, lawyers, trade unionists and human
rights defenders have come over to every stage of the trial.
People in Ireland have done tremendous fundraising, and
lobbying for these three men.
Pedro Mahecha, one of the men's lawyers and myself have
recently returned from a visit to the United States, where we
met with Irish Americans, Latin Americans, human rights
activists, business people, media and we got a great response.
People all over the world are watching this case. It is a test
case for Colombia.
Solo: Do you relate the case to attempts to undermine and
destroy the human rights consensus developed since the first
Geneva Conventions and since 1945?
Ruane: I think the erosion of civil liberties that is
happening at the moment particularly by the Bush and Blair
administrations is very worrying. Violation of law and due
process does not resolve conflict, it creates more conflict.
We only have to look at the situation in the North of Ireland
for the past thirty years when successive British governments
threw due process out the window and there was systematic,
massive violation of human rights. I urge all governments to
respect international covenants and abide by them. There is no
easy answer to the problems in the world today but violation
of human rights or suspension of civil liberties is certainly
not the way forward.
Solo: What can people do to secure the release of the 3? Do
you think this is part of a wider defence of basic human
rights standards?
Ruane: The Bring Them Home Campaign, the three men's families
and the lawyers for the three men are calling on people
throughout the world to write, e-mail and ring the Colombian
Embassies throughout the world and let them know they are
watching this case. We are asking people to call on the
Colombian Government to free the Judge from political and
military pressure and that he can make a decision based on the
evidence presented to his court free from intimidation.
Solo: In the Irish context, what has been the effect of the
manipulation of the case by Tony Blair and Ulster Unionist
leader David Trimble?
Ruane: There have been consistent and sinister attempts to
undermine the peace process in Ireland and there have been
very serious setbacks. Cancelling of democratic elections by
Tony Blair is one of these. Having said that I have confidence
that there will be change in Ireland. Things will move
forward. No one will be able to stop that change happening.
This foot-dragging by the British government and their
Unionist allies will not deter the people in Ireland, north
and south, who have worked for years to build this peace
process.
Solo: Martin MacAuley was in the past represented by the
lawyers Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, both murdered by
Protestant paramilitaries with links to the British security
forces. How do you think the case fits in to the history of
British rule in Ireland since 1970?
Ruane: Martin McCauley is the only survivor of people targeted
during the ``shoot to kill'' policy of the British government in
the early 1980s. Two of his lawyers have been killed and there
have been threats against his defence lawyers and their
organisations in Colombia. President Uribe's rant against
human rights defenders is very worrying and extremely
irresponsible. It is interesting that the very forces--the
British army--that tried to kill Martin are training the
repressive Colombian ``security'' services in Colombia today,
financed by the British tax payer.