Pubdate: Mon, 13 Aug 2001
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2001 The Washington Post Company
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Author: Jared Kotler, Associated Press Writer

IRA FIGURES ARRESTED IN COLOMBIA

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The rebel safe haven was supposed be a "laboratory for 
peace," but Colombian officials say members of the Irish Republican Army 
were training Colombian rebels in terrorist tactics there.

The accusations, leveled Monday following the arrests of three alleged IRA 
members in Bogota, prompted fears of a turn to urban terrorism by 
Colombia's largest insurgency, the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of 
Colombia, or FARC.

They were also bound to stir up further criticims of President Andres 
Pastrana's decision to cede 16,200 square miles of Colombian territory as a 
peace gesture to the rebels.

Announcing the arrests at a news conference, Defense Minister Gustavo Bell 
said three men were caught Saturday after spending five weeks inside the 
FARC-held demilitarized zone training rebels in the use of explosives.

In return, officials said the FARC could be providing the IRA with anything 
from drugs to money to black market arms - their first such alliance.

Officials said tests on the clothing of the three turned up traces of four 
different kinds of explosives, as well as cocaine and amphetamines. FARC 
rebels are involved in cocaine production in Colombia, which earns them 
millions of dollars in profits.

The 16,000-strong rebel army has mostly used crude explosive devices in 
Colombia's civil war, now in its 37th year. But with the United States 
beefing up the Colombian military with training, weapons and combat 
helicopters, a subsequent ratcheting up of rebel attacks has long been 
expected.

"Day by day, Colombia's subversive groups are moving more into terrorism," 
Colombia's army commander, Gen. Jorge Mora said.

Mora said British officials have confirmed that the three suspects were 
members of an IRA unit that specializes in explosives and arms manufacturing.

The three residents of Northern Ireland entered Colombia with false 
passports at the end of June and the beginning of July, the officials said. 
Two of the men have been identified as Martin McCauley and James Monaghan.

The third member of the group, considered the most high-ranking of the 
three, has still not been identified. He traveled under the name David 
Bracken, believed to be a pseudonym, and is said to be the only one who 
speaks Spanish.

In a video shown to journalists, the three men stood stone-faced before the 
camera in Bogota's military police base, where they are being held. None of 
them spoke.

The Colombian defense minister said his government was taking steps to 
prepare a possible handover to British authorities. But the British 
government had not given any indication it would seek their extradition or 
deportation.

An official from Colombia's federal prosecutor's office said the three 
could also be tried here for providing training in terrorist tactics, and 
could receive jail terms of up to 20 years if convicted.

The three were captured after getting off a flight at Bogota's 
international airport from San Vicente del Caguan, the largest town in the 
demilitarized zone. They had intended to board a plane bound for Paris.

Rebel spokesman Raul Reyes, reached by the phone from the DMZ, refused to 
comment on the arrests. There was no immediate comment from the IRA, either.

Pastrana declared the demilitarized zone a "laboratory for peace" when he 
ceded it to the FARC. But ongoing rebel attacks and the guerrillas' alleged 
use of the enclave to stage attacks, conduct military training and stash 
kidnap victims have soured many Colombians to the peace process.

The FARC, with its huge earnings from cocaine production and kidnappings, 
is considered a largely self-sufficient group. However, armed forces chief 
Gen. Fernando Tapias said the military had received past reports of 
training from Venezuelan and Cuban "terrorists", and had noted growing 
coincidences between terror tactics used by Colombian rebels, the IRA and 
Spain's armed Basque group ETA.

He said the FARC had already copied an IRA tool in developing devastating 
homemade missiles it uses in attack on towns and villages.

"Every war is going to get resources from outside elements," Tom Cash of 
Kroll Associates, a New York-based security consultant firm said from his 
Miami office. "The IRA is global in its arms and explosives networks, and I 
don't see why anyone would be surprised to see that they are assisting the 
FARC." 
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