Adams will not attend US Congressional hearing

Sinn Féin leader Mr Gerry Adams will not travel to the US attend a Congressional hearing on alleged republican links with Colombian guerrillas.

Mr Gerry Adams speaking in the Northern Assembly yesterday,

The party leadership announced the decision this afternoon following a meeting late last night to discuss the matter. The hearings are scheduled to begin tomorrow.

Mr Adams said he had written to the Chairperson of the US House of Representatives' International Relations Committee, Mr Henry Hyde, declining his invitation to attend.

"I offered to meet the Committee the next time I am in Washington," Mr Adams said.

Mr Adams said he had received legal advice from Madden and Finucane, the solicitors representing the three Irishmen detained in Colombia, not to attend the Congressional hearings as his presence may well be prejudicial.

Announcing his decision, Mr Adams said: "I am satisfied with the IRA statement of September 19th last year in which the IRA leadership made it clear that it 'sent no one to Colombia to train or to engage in any military co-operation with any group’."

"It is also my view that the hearings are only co-incidentally about Ireland. They are essentially about the relationship between the USA and Colombia. These matters are for the governments of these two countries."

The Sinn Féin leader added that Irish republicans "pose no threat to US National Security interests in Colombia".

The Committee wanted to question Mr Adams on alleged links between FARC, the Colombian rebel movement, and the three Irishmen arrested on August 11th last while trying to leave Bogota Airport using false passports.

The three Irishmen have been formally charged with teaching bomb-making to Marxist rebels. The three face up to 16 years in jail if convicted.

The Irish Timesreported yesterday that the effectiveness of FARC was enhanced through co-operation with the IRA. The allegation is contained in a dossier compiled by US congressmen that asserts innocent people died as a result of the training of FARC guerrillas by the IRA.