By Patrick Goodenough. CNSNews.com
London Bureau Chief. August 16, 2001
London (CNSNews.com) - As more information emerges about three Irish
militants arrested in Colombia, the leading unionist party in Northern Ireland
has called on Washington to take "stern steps" in the face of alleged
terrorism and narcotics collaboration between the IRA and anti-U.S. Marxist
terrorists in Latin America.
The development was not just a setback for the peace process, unionists said
- it called into doubt the republicans' commitment to a non-violent resolution
of the 30-year communal conflict.
President Bush should take steps to show that "democracy will not be
held to ransom by Marxists whether they are Irish or Columbian," said the
Ulster Unionist Party's Sir Reg Empey.
The UUP, embroiled in a bitter dispute with the IRA's political wing, Sinn
Fein, over terrorist disarmament, has seized on the arrests as evidence that the
republicans have not abandoned violence.
Although it has observed a ceasefire since 1997, the IRA this week withdrew
an offer to disarm.
Three IRA men arrested in Colombia at the weekend are suspected to have been
training Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels in bomb-making
techniques. Police found traces of explosives and drugs on their clothing.
Their arrest has embarrassed Sinn Fein, which under the Good Friday
agreement shares power with unionists and others in a self-rule government in
Belfast.
Security sources say that one of the men - a Spanish-speaker who has been
living in Cuba for several years - arranged an official trip to Havana next
month for Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.
Another was filmed sharing a platform with Adams at a Sinn Fein party
conference a decade ago, and the third was a Sinn Fein election official in
1996.
During the Clinton era, Sinn Fein leaders received a warm reception in
Washington as the president pushed the parties toward an agreement often
presented as a highlight of his foreign policy initiatives.
Clinton controversially granted a visa to Adams to visit the U.S. seven
years ago, at a time the IRA had yet to agree to a ceasefire. He maintained that
only by bringing the republicans in from the cold could a peace deal be
achieved.
The UUP's Empey said that if the allegations against the three men arrested
in Latin America were upheld, Bush and senior Irish-American figures should
review their approach to Sinn Fein.
"The issue of visas to Sinn Fein members was based on their commitment
to exclusively peaceful means. This is now in question, and President Bush may
have to review his policy in this area," he said.
Empey argued that the alleged IRA activities in Colombia showed that while
Irish terrorists had been saying they were committed to peace, they have been "engaged
in exporting terrorism throughout the Western world."
The IRA links to FARC could only mean one thing, he said - "they are
still wedded to their murderous ways in pursuit of their Marxist ideology."
Empey stressed FARC's actions against American citizens and firms, including
terrorism and extortion.
"That's the misery Irish terrorists want to see inflicted on the free
world, and that's what President Bush now needs to confront ... these people
peddle drugs and inflict misery and death through their ruthless activities."
Another unionist politician in Northern Ireland, Peter Robinson, said he had
learned from British intelligence sources information that made it clear the
IRA-FARC cooperation was a two-way process.
"The relationship is that of an international terrorist exchange
program to exchange knowledge, technology and training between the two
organizations on armaments and explosives," Robinson said.
It appeared the Irish militants were learning from FARC about the use of a
new type of explosive more powerful than Semtex, the IRA's standard bomb-making
ingredient.
This information was in the possession of the British government, he said,
and yet it persisted in making concessions to the republicans when it was clear
they were not acting in good faith.
Cuba
FARC was designated as foreign terrorist groups by the State Department in
1997. The department's most recent global terrorism report says the group gets "some
medical care and political consultation" from Cuba.
One of the three men being held in Bogota, Niall Connolly, is allegedly the
IRA's link man in Cuba, and is understood to have been involved in organizing an
eight-day trip by Adams and a Sinn Fein delegation to the communist nation next
month, according to UK security sources quoted Thursday.
Sinn Fein, which has long attempted to keep a distance between itself and
the IRA, has denied that any of the three men are currently party members.
A spokesman denied that Connolly had been involved in arranging the visit to
Cuba.
Sinn Fein has no representative in Cuba or in South America, the spokesman
said, adding that only its international department, based in Ireland, had been
involved in preparation for the visit to Cuba.
For years many Irish republicans have seen the Cuban government as a natural
ally.
Twenty years ago, President Fidel Castro publicly supported the IRA during a
dramatic hunger strike which culminated in the deaths of 10 IRA prisoners. Sinn
Fein's planned visit comes around the 20th anniversary of that episode.
The Irish republican mouthpiece, An Phoblacht, has long been supportive of
Castro and critical of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.
In a typical two-part piece last spring, the weekly newspaper gave
considerable space to a meeting in Dublin of "Cuban solidarity groups"
from across northern Europe.
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