Lencho Letta during an interview with Betty Show (Photo screenshot from the video)borkena
In his latest interview with Betty Show, Lencho Letta, one of the founders of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) commented on the developments in the country. He touched upon many issues.
You might find two of the points he commented on during the interview – interesting. One is his view about the relationship between ethnic Oromo identity and democracy. The other one is his remark that the Eritrean President at one point wanted to drop the idea of secession after encouragement from the United States.
On the first one, he said, for the first time, “a force that is not afraid of democracy is in control of power.” His reference is to ethnic Oromo people. He stated two reasons why the Oromo is “not afraid of democracy. “
1) Oromo says that it has a democratic culture
2) It’s the largest in terms of number in Ethiopia
Therefore, he said, the “realization of democracy is beneficial to Oromo, not harmful.” For Lencho, all preceding Ethiopian rulers “sprang from communities that fear democracy.”
Lencho does seem to be rejectionist about the Oromo ethnicity of many of Ethiopia’s leaders including Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam – who professed his ethnic identity during an interview several years ago. He also seems to ignore the fact that hundreds of thousands of non-ethnic Oromo Ethiopians were massacred by ethnic Oromo political forces over the period of the past fifty years.
Regarding Eritrea, he said that the Americans were putting pressure on the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front – EPLF- now The People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), in the final chapter of the struggle to drop the idea of secession. They were advised, he said, to take control of the entire Ethiopia and rule the country.
And he said that the Shabia (EPLF) leader, a reference to President Isaias Afeworki, was interested in implementing the idea. It was the TPLF (Tigray People’s Liberation Front -TPLF) that did not like the idea.
When the information was disseminated, there emerged a disenchantment among the EPLF fighters. Then the leader of Shabia changed his mind and released a different statement.
Video : embedded from Betty Show youtube channel
Cover photo : screenshot from the video
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Through all the times, Isayas Afeworki has been very consequental and straghtforward in his principles and aspirations regarding Eritrea. No one in Eritrea and all no one who happens to know Isayas will believe this kind of bullshit by Mr. Lencho Letta.