Interviews with Birtukan Midekssa

Along with the court process, there were national elders who were trying to mediate between, you know, the governing political group and the prisoners, who were also political party leaders. And the initiative was to bring about a real national reconciliation. You know, and we had that kind of optimism while we are still in prison. You know, we are hoping that, you know, the people in power would realize at some point we need to have, you know, real dialogue, a real, you know, negotiation.

And we need to come in terms about, you know, the fundamental principles and about the rules of the game. And we need to chart out, you know, a future in which we can coexist as political groups while we are supposed to abide by the laws and the constitutional principle of the country. So – but that initiation of the elders, you know, didn’t take us anywhere in terms of national reconciliation and negotiation. But there were – that was the hope in our party and in the part of the elders as well. But you know, basically the governing party – they were clear in their minds: What they need to do is to secure their power and to put power as the first and the final priority in terms of their political transactions.

So they have been busy, you know, promulgating laws and controlling people, even into the localities, and intimidating political party supporters; you know, using all kinds of state apparatus and you know, all kinds of state resources to exert effective control in the day-to-day life of each citizen. You know, while we were staying in prison, they were engaged in this very serious political engagement and process. So you know, there was no way, you know, having – while they are having this kind of perspective, you know, they don’t have any reason to come to us and to dialogue with us or something. But finally, you know, the elders, to try to resolve at least, you know, our – the issue of our imprisonment.

And you know, they asked us to sign some kind of confession, you know, recognizing our mistakes– our political mistakes, you can say; just for the sake of, you know, resolving things and to see some future for our supporters and our members and to kind of try to start again from where we left. And you know, then finally – initially the agreement was not to pardon us. The agreement was – from what we heard, the elders – after we gave in for the proposal of the elders, the government was supposed to kind of, you know, stop the trial, you know, by using its executive power. But it didn’t happen that way.

You know, all things previous referred to tied to the pardon board, and the pardon board to the president of the country, and finally the president of the country said, oh, I give pardon for this, this, this people. And you know, it got finalized, you know, in that manner. And it was discouraging in a way. You know, even though we were suffering and even though we were paying dearly, we wanted to use that opportunity to recreate our future and you know, to kind of give an end to that re-creation and to kind of progress. But it didn’t happen that way.

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.