By JUAN PABLO TORO

                 BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A Colombian rebel deserter claims members of
                 the Irish Republican Army provided weapons -- including missiles and
                 launchers -- and trained guerillas in explosives and military tactics, the
                 attorney general's office said Monday.

                 The deserter, identified for security reasons only as "Alexander," said the Irish
                 insurgents brought missiles and launchers in boxes aboard two small planes that
                 landed in a rebel safe haven on Aug. 27, 1999.

                 Three alleged IRA members were arrested in Colombia last year, shaking troubled
                 peace processes in both Colombia and Northern Ireland.

                 The testimony of the deserter to officials from the attorney general's office was
                 first reported Monday in the newsmagazine Cambio. Carolina Sanchez,
                 spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said the deserter's testimony was
                 accurately reported, although officials do not know if he was truthful.

                 The magazine did not specify what kind of missiles and launchers were allegedly
                 given to the FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and main rebel
                 group, which had not been known to have surface-to-air missiles.

                 Colombian army chief Gen. Jorge Enrique Mora told a news conference Monday he
                 believed Colombia's biggest rebel army has received terrorism training from foreign
                 groups, and that insurgents were using that training in recent attacks on Colombia's
                 infrastructure.

                 FARC has blown up dozens of electrical towers in recent weeks, causing electricity
                 rationing in some parts of the country, and attacked a reservoir last weekend that
                 provides water to Bogota, the capital.

                 "We can have no doubt that this increase in the use of explosives by the FARC ... is
                 due to these contacts, training and technology they received from other terrorist
                 organizations in the world," Mora said.

                 The deserter said the three men who arrived at the FARC's safe haven with the
                 missile launchers resembled the three who were arrested in August, 2001.

                 The three detained men -- Niall Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin McCauley --
                 said they had visited the rebel sanctuary to study Colombia's peace process. They
                 are being held in a Bogota prison while awaiting trial on charges of aiding terrorism.

                  Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.