White House still considers Colombia 3 to be fugitives
Thursday August 11 2005
THE Bush administration still considers the Colombia Three to be fugitives.
A US State Department official, on condition of anonymity, said last night that James Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley were deemed to be "fugitives of Colombian justice".
Although emphasising that the case would have to be dealt with by the Irish and Colombian governments, Washington could not simply ignore the situation.
With the exception of the Middle East, the US spends more funds on military efforts in Colombia than anywhere else in the world.
Its 'Plan Colombia' operation has been given more than $1bn to fight groups such as the Farc rebels whom the three stand convicted of assisting.
"The US condemns contributions to terrorism, such as the three were found guilty of, no matter where it's perpetrated," the official added.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said last night that any TD or senator with information on the whereabouts of the three should assist the gardai.
And in a separate development, the Department of Justice said the gardai had rejected any suggestion that an on-the-run suspect for the killing of Gda Jerry McCabe was spotted in Cork several months ago and played a role in assisting the three to return home.
The department said it had been reassured by the Garda authorities that there was "no basis whatsoever" for reports that Paul Damery had been involved in assisting their return.
Damery fled Ireland and is now based in South America.
Mr Kenny said Tanaiste Mary Harney, the acting Justice Minister, was right to urge people with information about the three to come forward.
He said Taoiseach Bertie Ahern should "immediately direct any members of his own parliamentary party to come forward with any information that they have on the men's whereabouts".
Mr Kenny said he welcomed the Tanaiste's remarks that the three men should serve their sentences here and he called on the Taoiseach to publicly confirm his support for that approach.
Ms Harney reiterated again yesterday that under Irish law the three men could be made to serve out their 17-year sentences here in the absence of an extradition to Colombia.
She called on the three to make themselves available to gardai and warned it was an offence for someone to travel on fraudulently-obtained documentation.
However, the director of the Council for Civil Liberties, Aisling Reidy, said gardai would have to have evidence that someone possessed a false document in Ireland before officers would want to talk to that person.
She also questioned the assertion by the Tanaiste that the Colombian sentence could be transferred to Ireland since the legislation to allow this was not yet law.
Unionist politicians backed the call made by Ms Harney for Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams to help gardai find the three.
UUP Assembly member Danny Kennedy said while his party would prefer that the three be sent back to Colombia to serve out their sentences, they would be satisfied with the men being jailed in Ireland.
* Colombia has now slapped visa restrictions on Irish tourists. They must not only apply in advance but also go for a personal interview. We are the only EU member state affected.
- Susan Garraty andBrian Dowling
