Do your bit to bring them home

Over a week after they were acquitted of training FARC guerillas, three Irish citizens remain locked up in a Colombian jail and two of their supporters are in danger also as they hang around in Bogota waiting for the breakthrough that will allow them to make arrangements for the journey home.

The Dublin Government has agreed to put up the €17,000 fine necessary to secure the men's release and end their 33-month ordeal, but the men remain incarcerated because there is no way of guaranteeing their safety outside what is in itself a very dangerous jail.

The prosecution is seeking leave to appeal their acquittal and all concerned are awaiting a decision by Judge Acosta to accept or reject that application. He has the power to grant Martin McCauley, Jim Monaghan and Niall Connolly permission to leave the country.

His lengthy judgment was scathing of the prosecution case, but this is Colombia.

Caitríona Ruane of the Bring Them Home campaign remains in Bogota, working to secure the men's release. At the moment, the campaigners are collating highly prejudicial right-wing media commentary following the verdict to send it to the Colombian Government and to form the basis of a complaint to the trial judge.

Ruane says the Dublin Government has made it clear to the Colombian autrhorities, in communications from the Taoiseach's Office and via diplomatic channels, that it believes the best way of guaranteeing the men's safety is to send them home as quickly and safely.

The task now for all those concerned with securing the timely return home of the three men is to lobby and lobby hard to keep the international pressure on the Colombians.

Letters and phone calls to Colombian embassies across the world, to international human rights groups calling for the men's release and to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin urging that Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen intervene directly with Colombian President Uribe are vital.

As Caitríona says, every letter counts.