ESAT News (March 03, 2016)
Chairman of the Oromo Democratic Front (ODF), Leenco Lata said on Thursday that the popular uprising in the Oromia region of Ethiopia had proved the unity of the Oromos and paved the way for a genuine unity of the people of Ethiopia.
The founder of the Oromo Liberation Front and who was also its General Secretary, Leenco Lata, in his message to the Oromo youth who are at the forefront of the fight against the minority regime, said their struggle was bearing fruit. He said other Ethiopians have shown the readiness to join the struggle alongside the Oromo people.
Leenco said the his party, ODF, would work with other Ethiopian forces to establish a democratic and one Ethiopia and that the notion of seceding the people Oromo from Ethiopia was an obsolete idea that was not in sync with the present realities.
Leenco, who is on a business trip in the US made a stop at ESAT’s DC studio for an interview in Afaan Oromo. ESAT recently began a broadcast in Afaan Oromo, the language of the Oromos, the ethnic majority in Ethiopia.
Leenco recently made an appeal to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, to sack the Chief of Staff, General Mohammed Yunus (Samora), and Chief of Intelligence and Security, Ato Getachew Aseffa, “for their mishandling of the crisis, [the protest in the Oromia region] and replacing them with professional and impartial officers.”
He also called on the Premier to release all political prisoners and establishment of “an independent commission to investigate the killings and assaults committed against peaceful Oromo demonstrators and to bring the culprits to justice.”