Birtukan Mideksa (also spelled Birtukan Midekssa) is an Ethiopian politician and former judge. She is an activist and porminent leader of the Ethiopian movement for fr

eedom and democracy. She is a chair the opposition political party Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) party. Birtuakn is famous for her leadership to secure progress on promotion of human rights and democracy in Ethiopia. She  is frequently referenced as a leader an icon in the struggle for freedom and  human rights in Africa  today.

She is beautiful 35 year old mother of a 4 year old, the only female heroin leader of an opposition party in Africa who  has been place in jail  after being rearrested by the thugs currently ruling  Ethiopia.

Her name is Birtukan, whose English equivalent is “orange” which is a symbol of solidarity with the democratic movement in nations across the globe.

Early life

Birtukan Mideksa, was born on in 1974, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Birtukan Mideksa went to Yekatit 12 secondary school (aka Menen) and upon graduating from high school she joined Addis Ababa University where she graduated from Law School with a Bachelors Degree in Law. She practiced law at the 3rd district of the federal judiciary.

She became a human rights and civil rights activist early in her career  and joined a political party to bring about a fast change in the country, including superiority of the rule of law, and a full respect and implementation of the constitution which proved first

Career and Politics

While she was working for the federal judiciary, Mideksa was appointed to be a judge at the 3rd district court of the court. During that time, she presided over a high profile case of the former defense minister and top ranking official of TPLF, Siye Abraha. She set the defendant free on bail just to be surprised by the government authorities arrested him minutes later while he was walking out of the court accompanied by his family and friends. Later on, she got several warnings and threats from government security agents which proved her clearly that independence of the judiciary is only on papers.

Later, Birtukan decided to join a political party to bring about a fast change in the country, including superiority of the rule of law, and a full respect and implementation of the constitution which proved first hand not in place while serving as a judge. She joined the Rainbow Ethiopia: Movement for Democracy and Social Justice party and later Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) after a coalition of four parties. After election or 2005, her party won, and the governing party started to round opposition party leaders (including Birtukan). Birtukan was convicted of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and sentenced to life in prison. She was pardoned after lengthy negotiations and after she, as well as other leaders of the opposition spent 18 months in prison. She later founded UDJ (Unity for Democracy and Justice) with the same principles followed by CUD. The need for having the new party name came from the fact that the ruling party’s election commission awarded to a splinter group from CUD (aka Kinijit). Birtukan was elected to be a chairperson of the UDJ, which has the goal of bringing about change in Ethiopia by peaceful means. On December 28 2008, Birtukan was re-arrested and imprisoned. The government claims that her pardon was conditional on an apology for her crimes. It says it ordered her re-arrest over reports that she had publicly denied having apologized for her actions or asking for a pardon, and that she will now be imprisoned for life. Indeed, Birtukan openly continued her peaceful struggle for more democracy, the respect for human rights and the rule of law in Ethiopia.

The following article was published in the weeks following her arrest:

ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia’s leading opposition politician is in her 10th day of a hunger strike after she was jailed for life on Dec. 29 [sic] following a dispute with the government, according to her mother. Birtukan Mideksa, 34, has been taking only juice and water and is being held in solitary confinement in a windowless 3-meter by 4-meter (10-foot by 13-foot) cell in Ethiopia’s Kaliti prison, said her mother, Almaz Gebregziabhere, who visited her in prison Wednesday. “I didn’t recognize her because of how she’s changed,” said Gebregziabhere, 72, in an interview on Thursday at her home in Addis Ababa. “I begged her for the sake of her daughter to eat, but she didn’t.” Prison officials have banned all visitors except Gebregziabhere and Mideksa’s 3-year-old daughter, Halle, from visiting her, Gebregziabhere said. Gebregziabhere, speaking in Amharic through a translator, said the family had been unable to hire a lawyer for Mideksa because those contacted on her behalf have turned her down as a client, fearing government reprisals. Mideksa, a leader of the now-dissolved Coalition for Unity and Democracy party, was first jailed after Ethiopia’s 2005 elections, in which the CUD claimed victory. She and dozens of other opposition leaders were sentenced to life in prison, though they were released in 2007 after a pardon agreement with the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

She was re-arrested Dec. 29 [sic] after she rejected government demands that she make a public statement saying she had formally requested the original pardon. Bereket Simon, an adviser to Zenawi, said he wasn’t aware of Mideksa’s fast. “We have a prison system whereby we hold prisoners in a humane condition,” Simon said. “This is a case where she has said that she didn’t ask for pardon and the decision of the judiciary is being applied. At this point, I don’t think it requires intervention by lawyers.” Simon also said the government wasn’t interested in potential mediation efforts by the independent group that negotiated Mideksa’s initial release. Following their release in 2007, some former CUD leaders chose exile in the U.S. or U.K. Mideksa stayed in Ethiopia and formed a new party that planned to contest the 2010 elections. “Look what has happened to her,” said Berhanu Nega, who along with Mideksa led the CUD movement in 2005, in a phone interview from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The government “will never allow any peaceful transition in that country.”

Nega, who was elected mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005 before his imprisonment, has called for armed struggle to oust Zenawi. Nega left Ethiopia after his release from prison in 2007 to teach at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. His new movement, Ginbot 7, has formed an underground network inside Ethiopia with the goal of overthrowing Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, Nega said. The U.S., which views Ethiopia as a key ally in the fight against terrorism, offered a rare rebuke to Zenawi’s government following Mideksa’s arrest, warning Ethiopia to avoid steps that appear to “criminalize dissent.” Government opponents accused the state of rigging the May 2005 poll, sparking protests in Addis Ababa. A judicial inquiry after the election concluded that government security forces had killed over 193 opposition supporters in the unrest.”