NEWS RELEASE
"BRITAIN AND EU MUST NOT BACK COLOMBIAN STATE TERROR" SAYS STUC GENERAL SECRETARY ON DAY OF RETURN FROM COLOMBIA
Colombian Trade Union building in which Speirs attended meeting was bombed during visit
Commenting on Colombian President Uribe's visit to the European Parliament, STUC General Secretary Bill Speirs said today:
"I returned late last night from a British trade union and human rights delegation to Colombia, during which the union building we had a meeting in was bombed.
"There is so much I could, and will, say about what we heard and saw in Colombia. In particular I will never, ever, forget talking to the woman whose husband was kidnapped by State-linked Paramilitaries. They let him phone her to tell her how much he loved her and their children. Then they left the phone open so that she could listen as they cut off his arms and legs, which they later dumped at her house.
"Thousands of Colombians are being jailed, without trial, for being trade unionists. I managed to get into the Buenpastor prison in Bogota and spoke to two women, one of whom has been inside for 5 years and the other for 4, without charge or trial. We met the Colombian Interior Minister who admitted that the President of the Oil Workers Union who has been under house arrest for the past year accused of "rebellion" is innocent, and that 40% of those in Colombian jails have never been tried.
"We also met the Defence Minister and the Colombian Vice President. The Defence Minister when asked about the way in which British military aid to Colombia is being used denied that it existed. The Vice President said that it was valuable but would not comment on how it is used.
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"The Vice-President and the Defence and Interior Ministers all paid fulsome tribute to the UK Government, which they described as their "best friend" in Europe. I, and my colleagues, found that deeply depressing.
"There is no way that the European Union and the British Government should be supplying aid - especially military aid - to a state which jails people for years without trial, and is complicit in the assassination of trade union activists."