May 21, 2001 16:56: Former Dartford resident Jenny James has spent the last year campaigning for justice for her grandson and his friend who were executed in Colombia. MATTHEW SKINNER heard her story.

Tristan and Javier were captured by soldiers in a town near Iconozo, Colombia, and dragged into the middle of the street. According to eyewitnesses, one heavily-armed member of the Milicianos, a revolutionary splinter group, shouted: "We shall kill this gringo for bringing paramilitaries into this area, who have killed so many people here."

Tristan, 18, was beheaded, petrol was thrown over his body and he was set alight. His 19-year-old friend suffered the same fate.

Tristan's grandmother, Jenny James, an environmentalist from Dartford, is still recovering from the shock of that day in July last year.

The executions were not extraordinary. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Left-wing guerrilla group, has been fighting US-backed government forces since it was set up in 1966.

Tristan was white, English-speaking and assumed to be American a legitimate target in the eyes of the rebels.

It is unusual this tragedy has not been allowed to be forgotten, as so many have. Mrs James has spent the past year fighting for the killers to be brought to justice, putting her own life in danger.

Speaking on Colombian television recently, she reaffirmed her commitment: "Our children's blood on this land ties us to this country more than ever before," she said.

Mrs James is the founder of Atlantis, a group made up of English and Irish environmentalists who have been living in Colombia for 13 years.

Now 58, she left England in 1988 with her three young daughters and group members and set up home in the wooded jungles of West Colombia. They survived by organic farming and without electricity.

The community has spent 13 years campaigning on environmental issues and estimates it has have saved more than 3,000 acres of rainforest.

But the environmentalists were also living in the middle of a war zone.

In 1999, soldiers forced them to leave their beautiful farm and they became refugees.

Then came the fateful day last year in July. Since then, Mrs James has been vociferously campaigning for justice, publicly calling on the Colombian authorities to act, while condemning other governments for supplying arms to both sides in the conflict.

Several members of Atlantis went as far as to squat outside the headquarters of FARC to highlight their cause, which could easily have ended with them being killed.

But Mrs James has faced danger before. She was an active member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which would often lead to confrontation with authorities.

In 1968, she went on a peace mission to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam war and ended up spending many weeks in a prison in Thailand.

Mrs James plans to continue her fight but knows the difficulties she may face: "People, simple peasants, are murdered every day in Colombia in this war. We are trying our best to bring some kind of justice but 99 per cent of all massacres and murders go unpunished here."

She is about to leave her adopted country but not her lifestyle: "Soon I will leave Colombia to go to the mountains of Bolivia, to find a new home for our community. We love these third world countries and the simple beautiful life in the mountains.

"In spite of the terrible things that have befallen us, we will not be returning to Europe."