Amnesty International has expressed concern about the conditions facing three Irishmen being held in a Colombian jail on charges of training paramilitaries and travelling on false passports.
Amnesty said yesterday it had "serious concerns for the safety of all political prisoners in Colombian prisons given recent reported confrontations between guerrilla and paramilitary inmates during which the authorities have reportedly failed to intervene in a timely manner".
The three detainees - Mr James Monaghan, Mr Martin McAuley and Mr Niall Connolly - have been accused of providing military training to the Marxist rebel group FARC.
The director of Amnesty's Irish section, Mr Sean Love, said it expected the men would be "provided access to lawyers and embassy officials, are guaranteed a fair trial according to international standards, and as with any other detainee, are not subject to any cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".
He said it was also important to highlight the human rights abuses, including kidnappings, torture, and "disappearances", which were being inflicted by both FARC and right-wing paramilitary groups.
Amnesty noted that on July 2nd last La Modelo inmates belonging to army-backed paramilitary organisations reportedly attacked detainees accused or sentenced of being members of armed opposition groups. The confrontation resulted in at least 10 deaths and injuries to 15 other people, according to Amnesty.
"It is of concern that the authorities only intervened after 12 hours despite reported appeals by some of the political prisoners for the security forces to intervene."
