By Peter Heinlein | VOA
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – The leader of Ethiopia’s Unity for Democracy and Justice Party, Birtukan Mideksa, who was imprisoned for life last month after a dispute with the government, has ended a hunger strike and told relatives she wants to begin legal proceedings to win her freedom.
Birtukan has called off the fast she began December 29, when she was arrested and placed in solitary confinement in Addis Ababa’s Kaliti prison.
Birtukan’s mother Almaz Gebregziabher told VOA her daughter had eaten the soup and Ethiopian bread (injera) she had brought to the prison Saturday and Sunday.
In an interview at her home, Almaz said Birtukan told her she had decided to fight the court ‘s move to revoke the pardon she received in 2007 – nearly two years after she and dozens of other opposition politicians were arrested in the wake of Ethiopia’s disputed 2005 election, and convicted of treason. They had been given life terms, then pardoned after signing a document effectively admitting their guilt and apologizing.
But during a visit to Sweden late last year, Birtukan denied having asked for a pardon, then refused a demand by the government to retract her statement.
Speaking in Amharic, Almaz expressed tearful frustration at her daughter’s action, which leaves her to care for Birtukan’s three-year old daughter.
Almaz also had strong words for government officials, whom she said had violated her daughter’s constitutional rights.
She said the government promised freedom of speech, democracy – she talked and ended up in jail.
Birtukan, a lawyer and former judge, is the first woman to head a major Ethiopian political party.
Her imprisonment changes Ethiopia’s political landscape a year and a half before the next scheduled parliamentary elections. Her Unity for Democracy and Justice is an outgrowth of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, which was a major force in the disputed 2005 elections.
She was widely seen as the party’s most charismatic figure and a prime minister hopeful, with potential for wide support among members of Ethiopia’s two largest ethnic groups, Oromos and Amharas.
Government spokesman Bereket Simon earlier told VOA politics had nothing to do with the court order sending Birtukan back to prison. He said it was a simple matter of the judge in the case enforcing the law, and suggested the government has no interest in any further legal proceedings on the issue.
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FORUM | 3 Comments
Goverment has nothing to do? Mr.Simon her suffering is caused by the TPLF tugs. It has nothing to do with her speech in Europe. Think of this way, how pleasant will it be to have the first female prime minister in the history of the country? We demand her release!
[Reply]
January 12th, 2009 at 10:03 AM
Bertukan albelam bela, rabat. then she eat. This poor girl is a laughing stoke for Meles and his gang. I bet they were laughing and saying she will eat when she starved and true to their words, she started to eat.
We told her peacefull struggle like this won’t work for savages and barbarians like TPLF officials. so does the professor who was hit by a stupid farmer TPLF soldier who doesn’t have a brain to think for himself. There should be no symphaty for this people because they chose to be abused like that
[Reply]
January 12th, 2009 at 3:05 PM
Let us mend our way. we are not playing the civil mass disobedience as Gandhi did it 60 years ago. Let us organize the wide mass first.
[Reply]
January 27th, 2009 at 12:28 PM