Songs of Freedom

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday March 18, 2003 14:41 by B - D helpyourself at indianlove dot ie

Stand together and make the connections

Love above all

Songs of Freedom, I was there and I ask others to do fund-raisers and recognise the need for great solidarity between all opposition groups. Live together, learn together, stand together and fight together.
Bring Them Home: Colombia 3: Protest outside department of foreign affairs in Dublin on 15-03-03.

Environment:
Security cameras everywhere gave an element of security to the gathering that wouldn’t be present at other locations.
Awareness of people at gathering was also strong with everyone keeping an eye out during the presentations as the threat of attack is always present at such a gathering.

A large photographic print of the three men was displayed throughout the speeches that was very effective in focusing emotions with the three men.
Descriptions of the work being done by people in relation to the cases of the three men was presented very effectively.
Media groups were lacking as I didn’t notice any main media group Eng. or documentary camera crews although there may have been some not apparently present.
All main issues in relation to the conditions of the three being held and the political vacuum surrounding the efforts being made for their release were presented very well.

Thinking about the Republican Sinn Fein activists and other Republicans and AntiWar demonstrators who are being held at Irish prisons under internment style policing policy; I thought again how ludicrous their cases are and how unjust their charges are too.

Descriptions of the conditions at prisons in Columbia for the three men were horrific with reports made on how right wing groups were exchanging weapons and information freely and how people were chopped to bits and disposed of down shores in the same prisons where the men were being held..... The need to get them out of there and back home was left in no doubt; their plight is that dangerous.

Calls were made for the Irish minister for foreign affairs to play an active role in instigating their releases and for an end to the wink and nod backroom politics which is ensuring the ongoing political scapegoating of these men.

References to the facts that even if these men were proven to be part of resistance fighting in Columbia that they would be on the right side were not given at the gathering but I make this point. The position regarding corruption and brutal oppression of civil and human rights in Columbia as well as in Ireland have been made clear. Republicans have only ever been involved in resisting the powerful status quos that maintain this oppression and brutality; this is the glaring truth that all of us must recognise and support.

A leading aide to the three men in Columbia had his Irish passport ripped asunder by a Colombian officer while out there recently working on the cases. he was prevented form carrying out his duties further at that point. Calls for more funding for the groups that travel from Ireland to Columbia to promote the fair return of these men who are wrongly accused and in extreme danger everyday; were made at the gathering, so please do what you can to forward and raise funds for the group. Contact Sinn Fein for information on where to send money.

These cases of the three men are landmarks in a huge case of wrong doing to all of us by the elite forces of today both at home and internationally. These landmark cases have great spin off effects on the entire current Irish situation facing us all.

I would like to get a copy of the proceedings for showing at presentations as it was that good. It would have been an ideal opportunity for a news or documentary crew from a leading media organisation to record. Try to get more of your friends and colleagues interested and actively involved in such work for future events and dates. Go easy on the leisure during these austere times; not so much drinking Paddy!

A friend in need, a friend indeed. De Barra.