LONDON – Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) Chairman General Kemal Galchu and OLF Army Commander, General Hailu Gonfa, can move about where ever they want in Eritrea and are not under house arrest as reported, OLF insiders told Ethiomedia late Friday.
Earlier an OLF source said Eritrea has rejeced OLF requests to launch military operations in Ethiopia, a report which was not denied by the second OLF source either.
The OLF source, who was speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the individuals who surrendered to the TPLF regime were not active OLF fighters.
“These guys formally resigned from OLF on October 13, 2009, and were no longer members of the gallant OLF,” the source said.
“Those who were relieved of their OLF membership, and surrendered to TPLF, had been given a mission to assassinate OLF leaders,” the source said, adding the plot was exposed and the assassins ran toward their TPLF benefactors.
“The plot was to convene a unity meeting of the leaders of all the factions of OLF in the Southern zone, and carry out the mass murder, which never occurred,” he said.
“Licho Bukura and Kanu Jirmo who oversaw and coordinated this enemy plot after receiving large payments in cash and lofty pomises lived in Nairobi, Kenya and were not members of the gallant Oromo Liberation Army (OLA). In fact, Kanu was arrested, charged and convicted as an enemy spy. He served time and was later pardoned. He went to the enemy along with Abdata and Licho fearing the outcome of an ongoing investigation for corruption and working for the enemy. For example, Abdata ran away with large amount of cash earmarked to upgrade the fighting capacity of the Oromo Liberation Army in the Southern Zone. They ran away, along with a bunch of civilians from Nairobi, a few soldiers who had been demobilized over the years, and a handful of refugees from Kenya before the hand of justice caught up to them,” an insider told Ethiomedia.
“The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) is intact, undaunted by the treachery and very active in the Southern , South Eastern, Eastern Zone, Western, North Eastern as well as Central Zone of Oromia. The claim by the Weyane that the last OLF soldiers have surrendered is totally false, bogus and far from the truth. As always the facts will soon disprove the pack of lies propagated by the TPLF,” the OLF insider asserted.
The rebels said their operation zone was in southern Ethiopia along the borders with Kenya, and they were the last group of AK-47-totting fighters to have given up armed uprising.
“The OLF leaders can’t leave Eritrea,” an OLF observer told Ethiomedia by phone. “Several attempts to persuade [President] Isaias Afewerki to set the leaders free have failed. Now OLF leaders are virtually prisoners in Asmara, and it doesn’t make sense for the rebels to roam
the countryside without leaders.”
When OLF trainees leave Eritrean camps for operations in Ethiopia, they always end up encircled by Ethiopian forces, signifying an exchange of intelligence between Asmara and Addis, two governments that deceptively look like they are on war footing.
