Serving the repressive TPLF regime is a historical crime, say two senior Ethiopian officers who joined the OLF

Asmara, 18 September 2006 - Two senior Ethiopian Army officers who recently joined the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) abandoning the TPLF regime said that serving the repressive regime is a historical crime.

In an interview with Eritrean Television, Brig. General Hailu Gonfa, who was a senior official in the Ethiopian Defense Ministry and Col. Gemechu Ayana, commander of the 8th Mechanized Force said that the Ethiopian people have gone through untold suffering over the past 15 years and that they have been repeatedly putting forth demands to alter such a state of affairs but to no avail. The two senior army officers went on to say that as their demand fell on deaf ears, they were compelled to raise up arms against the regime and thus join the popular struggle.

Brigadier General Hailu Gonfa

They stressed that the Army being part of the people should serve a popularly elected government and not individuals. The two officers further pointed out that as the majority of members the Ethiopian Army have come to understand this way of thinking, they are being subjected to heinous repression on the part of TPLF cadres.

Stating that the regime is making futile attempts to pit the Ethiopian people against one another on the basis of nationality, ethnicity and regionalism so as to prevent them from fostering unity, Brig. General Hailu Gonfa disclosed that this same divisive policy is being practiced by cadres within the Army who have no sense of patriotism at all.

Colonel Gemechu Ayana

Recalling the defeat of the TPLF in the 2005 elections, Col. Gemechu Ayana emphasized on his part that serving this illegal clique is a historical crime, and as such it is naпve to think that such a brutal regime would change its ways.

In a message they conveyed to the Ethiopian people, the two senior Army officers called on the population to continue their resistance in an intensified manner. They particularly reminded the country’s Armed Forces to direct their weapons against the bloodthirsty regime.

source:www.hornofafrica.de