(OIN, 20 June 2000) - According to a report by the TPLF affiliated Internet web site known as Walta Information Center (WIC), a freight transport train that was going from Addis Ababa to Awash was hit by a land mine on Saturday, June 17, 2000. Walta quoted the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) as reporting "no damage was caused to the freight or to personnel, except for minor damage to the rail." A government official named Mr. Girma Mekonnen, head of the Railway's legal and public affairs office, was also quoted as saying "investigation has continued into the cause of the event which took place near Nazereth town."

Media outlets controlled by the TPLF government usually deny or down play activities of opposition forces in order to give the false impression that opposition forces are totally eliminated from the country. It was therefore quite surprising that Walta and the Ethiopian News Agency reported this particular incident. A source close to the TPLF regime told OIN that the very fact that the incident was reported by official government media outlets amounts to admission by the TPLF regime that severe damage was caused to the train.

According to a June 19 press release by the national council of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), on Saturday June 17, a cargo train loaded with coffee destined for export hit a land mine planted by opposition forces near Walenchiti, a town about 120 kms from Finfine. The engine of the train (code number BB1212) was totally put out of use and the freight was completely destroyed, according to the press release.

In the press release, the OLF reiterated its standing position that it will intensify targeting TPLF military positions and related military facilities for as long as "the TPLF minority-ruling clique thinks it can suppress the political and the democratic rights of the oppressed peoples by the use of force". The OLF admonished the TPLF as the group totally responsible for the destruction caused by the ongoing armed conflict.