Ukraine: Tymoshenko To End Hunger Strike, Accept Treatment
By PanARMENIAN
Ukraine’s jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko will end her 19-day hunger strike, says her daughter. Yevgenia Tymoshenko said her mother would be moved to hospital on Wednesday, May 9 to be treated by a German doctor, BBC News reported.
She went on hunger strike accusing prison guards of beating her during an earlier attempt to move her to hospital for treatment for back pain.
Earlier Ukraine postponed a European summit after several leaders announced a boycott over the issue. The summit was due to be held in in Yalta on 11-12 May, but the presidents of Germany, Austria, Romania and the Czech Republic were among those who cancelled their trips.
There is also a threat that leaders may boycott Euro 2012 football matches in Ukraine next month.
Yulia Tymoshenko is currently in prison in the eastern city of Kharkiv and is refusing to be treated by Ukrainian doctors for her back condition.
She has now agreed to be treated by a German doctor, Lutz Harms, in a local hospital.
Her daughter said the politician “appears to have lost 10kg (22lbs), her temperature has dropped significantly and she may pass out any minute now”.
Yulia Tymoshenko’s supporters released photographs showing bruises on her body, but prison guards denied allegations that they were responsible.
Yulia Tymoshenko was jailed for seven years in October for abusing her power while she was prime minister.
She is a long-time rival of President Victor Yanukovych whom she helped oust from power in Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution.
Europe in its blatant interference in Ukraine’s internal affairs has lost touch with reality.
First: they have forgotten that the proceedings against Yulia Tymoshenko for negotiating an agreement that was/is legal were instigated by the FORMER President Yushchenko, NOT by the current President Yanukovich who though he may despise her, nevertheless inherited the mess that this politically motivated affair has turned into, including exhorbitant gas prices. It was the FORMER President while advocating for NATO and Europe used a Soviet hangover law to purge his former ally whom he now opposes.
Second: Ms Tymoshenko, instead of mounting a rigorous defence at her trial used that trial to mount street style polemics and rantings; why could she not rise from her chair when it was protocol to do so? Rantings against “the system” belong in the street, not when in law court, regardless of ones personal opinion of that court or the violations for which she was charged.
Third: There are other questions and maybe charges to be answered, criminal and/or civil; not the least of which pertain to $405million which Russia claims is owed for gas delivered to HER company and has NOT been paid for. “RUBBISH!” exclaims Ms Tymoshenko. OK, if the charge is “rubbish” can she account for where is the money? This being aside from the fact that the Tymoshenkos are billionaires from gas dealings in a country with monthly minimum wages of less than Є100,00.
Forth: By demanding the current president intervene in an ongoing legal process the Europeans are requesting he do EXACTLY what they accuse him of WRONGLY doing previously, but in the opposite direction.
So in advocating needed changes in Ukraine to end the old Soviet style purges, I suggest that REAL friends of democracy step back a step from the forest; maybe then they will see the trees!