O'Donnell urged to intervene on behalf of priest

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell, has been asked by Trocaire to intervene in the case of an Irish priest whose life has been threatened by paramilitaries in Colombia.

Father Brendan Forde, a Franciscan missionary from Clontarf, Dublin, works in a remote "peace community" of Colombia, two hours' walk from the nearest telephone, from which he sends e-mails to his brother, Mr Kieran Forde, in Co Kildare.

On July 25th Father Forde wrote that there had been a massacre in La Union community, a village of about 150 people, one of the areas where he ministers. According to Father Forde, a group of armed men in military clothing with balaclavas arrived on July 8th and rounded up the villagers.

They separated the men from the women and children and shot six men dead on the village green. They then told the remaining villagers to abandon the village before they returned in 20 days, or they too would be shot.

Father Forde, who was supposed to leave for Costa Rica at the end of July, has decided to remain in the village, as his parishioners are obliged to remain, having nowhere else to go.

In addition to asking the Minister to intervene, non-governmental organisations and Father Forde's relatives in Ireland and in the United States have written to the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, asking her to use her influence with the Colombian government to have it, in turn, make the para militaries aware of international attention.

"We were told that the paramilitaries are sensitive to international public opinion and we hope that this is true. We are not asking anyone to do something they cannot, we aren't asking Brendan to abandon his parish, nor are we asking for the marines to invade. We want the international community to use its influence as the greater the awareness of the situation, the greater is the possibility of protection," Mr Kieran Forde told The Irish Times.

Peace talks between two left-wing guerrilla movements, the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the ELN (the Army of National Liberation), and the government have been taking place over the past year. The para militaries, however, are opposed to the peace process, and villages which declare themselves "peace communities" have been targeted.

Father Forde's last e-mail was on Monday night, three days after the paramilitaries' deadline ran out.