Interviews with Birtukan Midekssa

When I tried to, you know, pass this kind of message for a dissident probably who is still suffering or, you know, going through a very difficult time, I recognize, you know, how, you know, challenging and, you know, difficult that journey could be, you know. But I would like to remind them that, you know, they are engaged in something, which makes life worth living and worth fighting for. And I just would like to remind them they are fighting and they are standing for, you know, an idea, which is, you know, the major interest like – and in the life of ours as human beings.

And actually I would like to remind them that, you know, we may not see the happy ending like just, you know, approaching, you know, in the foreseeable sight and – but, you know, always there is progress towards, you know, a life of freedom and a dignified life and towards democracy and the rule of law and the arrow of time and the dynamics of maybe the universe. It’s on our side. And even we can look back to our history that we had as a human race, you know. Even if you look into the brutality people are subjected to today and if you looked at the brutality people were subjected years back, you might – you can see the difference. You know, still it’s disappointing. You know, still that those values we know are not governing or dictating the whole world as they should be. But there is progress.

There is progress here, even in our countries, which might seem very frustrating, very daunting. But you know – but there is progress in the minds of the people, in the heart of the people, you know. So that’s what I can say to them.

Birtukan Midekssa is a former federal judge and leader of the pro-democracy opposition movement in Ethiopia.

Hailed as the Aung San Suu Kyi of her country, she was sentenced to life in prison in 2005 after her party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, won an unprecedented number of seats in parliamentary elections. After eighteen months in prison, she was pardoned in 2007 following a series of high-level negotiations. Upon her release, she founded the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ) and was elected its first chairperson. In 2008, she was rearrested for allegedly having violated the terms of her pardon and remained in prison for almost two more years. In 2010, she was shortlisted for the European Parliament’s 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

Prior to entering politics, Ms. Midekssa served as a defense attorney and federal judge, rendering numerous court decisions in support of the rule of law and in defense of fundamental constitutional liberties. She drew the ire of the Ethiopian government when she presided as a judge in a high profile corruption case involving the former defense minister, Siye Abraha. Ms. Midekssa released Abraha for lack of evidence, but the government immediately rearrested him and sent him to jail for seven years. The government’s contempt for the rule of law helped motivate Birtukan Midekssa to become active in politics.

She was selected as a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow for 2011-2012 at the National Endowment for Democracy and as a Scholar at Risk Fellow at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at Harvard University for 2012 – 2013.