BY RACHEL VAN DONGEN
  Special to The Herald

  BOGOTA - In dramatic testimony, a former Colombian guerrilla, Edwin Giovanni Rodríguez, testified Friday in a packed courtroom that he witnessed three suspected members of the Irish Republican Army testing weapons in Colombia's former demilitarized zone.

  James Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley were arrested in August 2001 at Bogotá's El Dorado airport on charges of using false passports. The three men were later found to have IRA links and are on trial for allegedly helping train the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country's largest insurgent group.

  Surrounded by heavy security, Rodríguez, 25, testified wearing a bulletproof vest after being transported from prison in Villavicencio, where he is serving a four-year sentence.

  Rodríguez, the ex-chauffeur for FARC commander Jorge Briceño described three men whose names he could not confirm who he claimed to have seen in the former demilitarized zone starting on Feb. 5, 2001.

  `GRINGOS'

  He could not confirm their nationality but said they were known as ''gringos,'' a term used to refer to anyone who didn't speak native Spanish. On Feb. 5, Rodríguez said he was instructed to pick up a person he later recognized as Monaghan in a village in Caquetá and take him to a place called La Y, about three miles away from the demilitarized zone, then controlled by the FARC.

  Though he never knew their names, Rodríguez said he recognized the three after they appeared on a television broadcast while he was in prison.

  ''I know them because when they were captured Jorge Briceño addressed 120 units and said they have already given us what we wanted and from now on they're on their own,'' Rodríguez testified.

  Rodríguez said he saw Monaghan frequently because he ferried him to a classroom, where he, along with the two other foreigners, instructed 120 guerrillas in explosives. Though Rodríguez was never inside the classroom, he stood guard outside and apparently overheard what was said inside. After the lessons were complete, Rodríguez testified that he ''was asked to take [Monaghan] to test what had been taught and this was in Los Pozos,'' about two hours from the classroom.

  BLASTS

  At Los Pozos, Rodríguez claimed to have seen grenades and mortars exploding. Car bombs that could be activated by remote control were also tested, Rodríguez said.

  Though he never drove the other foreigners, Rodriguez testified he saw them teaching in the classroom and testing weapons at Los Pozos between Feb. 5 and Feb. 25, 2001.

  Rodríguez joined the FARC in February 1999 and deserted after being transferred for crashing Briceño's car while drunk. He said he had been repeatedly threatened since agreeing to testify and feared for the safety of his wife and child, whom he said he has not been able to contact since Wednesday.

  The defense sought to challenge Rodríguez's memory of dates, and indeed, at moments the witness seemed confused and blamed it on his illiteracy.

  Rodríguez said, for instance, that he thought the foreigners were arrested in April, when they were actually held in August 2001. The defense said it would present
  witnesses to refute the charge that any of the Irishmen were in Colombia in February 2001.

  ''These three men were not in Colombia on those dates,'' said Caitriona Ruane, the leader of a ''Bring Them Home'' campaign that brought a delegation of Irish observers to Bogotá. The trial will resume with defense witnesses on March 25.