Juan Gasparini/Carole Vann/Human Rights Tribune – The ICC has launched an investigation into the support network for FARC rebels outside Colombia with Switzerland under the microscope. Luis Moreno Ocampo, the ICC’s Prosecutor, has addressed a letter to Swiss authorities requesting that Berne open a nationwide investigation of the FARC networks that are active in Switzerland.

“The ICC is making a preliminary analysis concerning crimes against humanity and genocide in Georgia, the Ivory Coast, Afghanistan, Kenya and Colombia,” Ocampo explained to HRT. “It remains to be seen whether these countries undertake their own national investigations and whether or not these inquiries serve as an alibi to protect the authors of these crimes.”

Stopping in Geneva, the Prosecutor said the ICC can also pursue complementary investigations as is the case with the FARC. “Bogota is making inquiries in Colombia but the rebel group also has networks abroad. Spain has already informed us that a woman was arrested there at the request of Colombia. She is accused, among other things, of making deposits to another person in Switzerland: Omar Arturo Zabala Padilla, known as Lucas Gualdron, the head of FARC in Europe, based in Lausanne. This could be a matter of laundering money for a criminal organization.”

Lucas Gualdron, who arrived in Switzerland as a refuge in the 1990’s, is accused by Bogota of engaging in arms trafficking and financing terrorism. In 1998, he was denounced for having obtained a courtesy accreditation for Geneva’s Palais des Nations as a member of Tupac Amaru, an NGO defending the rights of indigenous people.

The other person implicated in the affair is Jean-Pierre Gontard, a former Swiss mediator in the conflict between Bogota and the FARC, whom Moreno Ocampo said is the object of an investigation in Colombia. “The government of President Alvaro Uribe accuses him of having surpassed his mandate regarding the FARC.” Furthermore, the Prosecutor adds, “if Switzerland fails to launch an investigation, we will ask that these persons be interrogated and that the results of the interrogations be communicated to us. Based on the results, we will decide whether or not to open an official investigation and issue arrest warrants as we did last month with Omar al Bashir, the President of Sudan.”

In fact, Jean-Pierre Gontard was questioned on Monday by the Foreign Affairs of Switzerland’s Grand Council (upper house) regarding his relations with the FARC. The week before, the Swiss mediator appeared before a similar commission in the Council of States.

Bogota accuses Switzerland of having delivered large sums of money to Colombia that were used in the liberation of two Novartis employees held by FARC rebels and of transferring other funds to a FARC European representative in Lausanne. But Jean-Pierre Gontard categorically denies this.

“Not only did I not deposit this money but I was in Switzerland during these transactions. Swiss officials knew all the details of this matter. They know who deposited the money for Novartis.”

For his part, Swiss Parliamentarian Dick Marty agreed, in an interview with a Swiss newspaper, that Gontard did his work correctly. Known around the world for his inquiries into secret CIA prisons, Dick Marty presides over the State Council commission that questioned Gontard. “Mediators are not necessarily diplomats,” he said, “They may have other skills and other contacts to effect success. Colombia wants to hide the fact that the liberation of Ingrid Betancourt did not come about as cleanly as they claim.”

In the same interview, Marty also commented on the accusations regarding the liberation of the Novartis hostages. “Professor Gontard revealed to us in a convincing manner that he had nothing to do with the delivery of a ransom. As for the rest, he never met with any FARC rebels in Colombia without having duly informed the Colombian government. The (Swiss) ambassador equally informed us that Professor Gontard always acted with the approval of the Swiss Minister of Foreign affairs.”

Translated from French by Pamela Taylor