Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is threatening to close his government’s Embassy in Sweden due to Stockholm’s continued pressure for the release of top opposition leader Judge Birtukan Mideksa, according to local media sources.
Judge Mideksa has been imprisoned for nearly 600 days and supporters say she was denied medical assistance after her long hunger strike. The first woman leader of an Ethiopian political party whose ancestry comes from multiple ethnicities, she has crossed various barriors to become a common national icon and the symbol of Ethiopian resistance against tyranny.
Birtukan Mideksa was the chairperson of the Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) party, which is the largest opposition group in Ethiopia and a member of the “Medrek” grand opposition coalition. Ms. Mideksa was re-arrested and imprisoned on December 28, 2008 after making speeches to her supporters in Sweden that angered the Zenawi government. When asked about the danger of being re-imprisoned, Birtukan said she was “ready to sacrifice everything for the cause of democracy, justice and peaceful change” in Ethiopia.
The Swedish government reacted strongly against her re-imprisonment as Swedish Minister Gunilla Carlsson warned that the “scope for democracy and pluralism is shrinking in Ethiopia” and Birtukan’s incarceration is “a source of great concern.”
This week VOA also reported that Meles declared the Ethiopian embassy in Sweden will be the first to close due to economic and diplomatic reasons. Currently, Sweden provides development aid, encourages privatization and supports health initiatives in Ethiopia.
