By MATTHEW BOWERS, The Virginian-Pilot

Three months ago, the Ethiopian government released Yacob Hailemariam and 37 other opposition leaders after they spent almost two years in prison – and possibly faced death sentences.

Friday, the former Norfolk State University business-law professor and United Nations special envoy sat in his stocking feet on a couch in his Kempsville townhouse. An old congratulatory banner still hung on the wall behind him. His wife of 31 years, Tegist, made coffee and warned visitors to ignore her husband’s jokes.

Relaxed as he looked, joking or not, and home less than a day, Yacob Hailemariam talked only of returning home – to his homeland, Ethiopia. Permanently.

He said he plans to go back in two months to continue the “unfinished business” of peacefully instilling democracy. The 2010 elections are coming.

“There is a chance we could go back to prison, but what are you going to do?” he asked, smiling. “We have made promises to the people, and we can’t renege on those promises.”

For now, he wants to see family and friends and to thank supporters from Norfolk State, churches, human rights groups and members of Congress who pushed for his release. He wants to read a lot, write a little and visit Ethiopians in the United States who believe in his cause.

He wants a hamburger.

Ethiopian voters elected him to parliament in 2005 in the most-free elections in the country’s 3,000 years of independence. But voting complaints led to protests, violence and opposition leaders being imprisoned. The human rights organization Amnesty International labeled them “prisoners of conscience.”

They were convicted and, in one dizzying week in July, were sentenced to life and then pardoned. Since then, he and several Coalition for Unity and Democracy colleagues have picked up the pieces of their party offices and spent six weeks visiting 12 cities in nine European countries. They thanked supporters and begged for continued pressure for a freer Ethiopia.

“We assured them we are not going to abandon the struggle for democracy, justice and the rule of law,” he said. He poked fun at his own idealism by adding “blah blah blah,” then turned serious again. “Many people think now that we are released, everything is fine and dandy. It is not. There are many people in jail. And the objectives of the party have not been fulfilled.”

Before his arrival in Hampton Roads on Thursday, Tegist Hailemariam had seen her husband once in more than two years – briefly, a year ago in prison.

This time, with their son out of college, she’ll follow Yacob to Ethiopia.

“I am part of the struggle, too,” she said.

Yacob Hailemariam, 63, said he felt more support from Europe than the United States, complaining about President Bush’s reluctance to pressure the Ethiopian government, seen as an ally in the war on terrorism.

He also said it’s difficult to sell the ideals of American-style democracy when people around the world hear reports of abused detainees in U.S. military prison camps.

“If the Bush administration can violate human rights with impunity, what prevents some petty African dictator from doing that?” he asked.

Better for him was the news of local support that reached him behind bars.

“I was proud of the community I raised my children in – Hampton Roads – and pride is a rare commodity in prison . This outcry really helped sustain my morale when I was in prison.”

Yacob Hailemariam, safe at home with his wife, brushed off questions about fear.

“No, we have made up our minds,” he said. “When we ran, we knew the risks. This is a country that has never had a democracy.”

Instead, in its 3,000 years of independence, it has generally changed governments through bloodshed.

“We want to change all this . We have, I believe … engraved in the minds of our people that the only government that they owe allegiance to is one elected by the governed. …

“Now people yearn for that, in everybody’s mouth, that people want to live freely without fear of the security forces. So our imprisonment, we believe, was not really in vain. It was worth paying the price.”

For now, he’s home. And he isn’t.
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Matthew Bowers, (757) 222-3893, [email protected]