Mr Bekele Gerba Ethiopian prisoner of conscience and lecturer in Addis Ababa University life is in danger due to lack of medical care. He has served the 3 year and 6 months imprisonment almost one month ago. However, he is still suffering in notorious Ethiopian prison with serious ailment because Ethiopian government doesn’t want to release him even after he has served his time behind the bar. Mr Bekele is a father of four young children who needs him most this time.
In the interview with local radio Afuura Biyyaa, his daughter Ms. Bontu Bekele clarified the problems she observed while visiting her father recently. She told the journalists ‘’more than 200 prisoners of conscience in the same prison are suffering from similar ailment.’’ The probability of having contagious disease in that cell shades dark light on the life all prisoners as all of them are suffering from similar symptoms like; night sweats, body fatigue, weight loss and heavy fever. The families of Mr. Bekele are left helpless as their mother has also lost her job due to political views of her husband which resulted in his imprisonment and immediate suspension of his wage from the day he was arrested. Ms. Bontu pledged all humanitarian and international community to put pressure on Ethiopian government to save her father’s life.
The following paragraph is quoted from Mr. Bekele’s speech in court after hearing his fine.
"I have dedicated my life to fight injustice, inequality, racism and oppression with passion. Not by my choice but by the will of God I was born as an Oromo. To fight for the human rights dignity and equality of my people by peaceful means and pay any price for this struggle is an honor for me. If I have to ever apologize in this life I dedicated for the struggle it is only for two things. One, if I chose not to speak spoken against the sufferings and anguish of Oromo people enough and if my motive in hiding this suffering was for a lesser purpose than the brotherhood of all people, I will ask the Oromo people to forgive me. Second, if I have ever exaggerated the injustice against the Oromo people and I did this to gain personal fame and fortune, I will ask God to forgive me. ~ Bekele Gerba
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