INTERVIEW
Prof. Asrat Woldeyes Speaks from Prison
By Wendy Belcher
Ethiopian Review, April 1998
The security guard and I passed through crowded hospital
corridors and up eight flights of stairs before reaching the
area where Professor Asrat Woldeyes, Ethiopia’s most
famous political prisoner, is being held. Six guards were
camped out in the yellow hallway. From their balcony I could
see the busy street below, small cars dodging the pedestrians
pursuing their everyday life outside Addis Abeba’s main hospital. Previously, I had not dared to hope that I would have the pleasure of meeting Prof. Asrat, but Ethiopian colleagues recommended that I ask the U.S. Embassy to arrange an interview. The embassy pronounced an interview “very unlikely,” and seemed as surprised as I was when their informal request was granted. That’s how I found myself on the eighth floor of the Black Lion Hospital on Friday, May 15, 1998. After fifteen minutes, the security guard showed me to Prof. Asrat’s door and ushered me in. I entered the small room hesitantly but Prof. Asrat was still startled to see me, sitting up awkwardly in the bed and trying to pull his pajama top to rights. “I’m sorry,” I said immediately. “Didn’t they tell you I was coming?” “Of course not,” he responded. “I’m a prisoner.” Now seventy, half-blind, and lying in a hospital bed, Prof. Asrat has lost none of his spirit. The guards looked down and were silent.
I told Prof. Asrat that I was an American journalist and that I had lived in Ethiopia as a young girl in the late 1960s, when my father was a physician teaching at the public health college in Gonder. (My father remembers Prof. Asrat very well.) We then settled down to an hour-long interview while Prof. Asrat lay in his modern hospital bed and looked toward the light from the room’s one high window. Two guards sat in on the conversation but did not appear to follow it.
Prof. Asrat frequently laughed during the interview, wryly pointing out the ironies of his position. First, that he is now imprisoned in the very hospital that he founded and led for thirty-five years, attended by the physicians and nurses whom he trained. Second, that he continues to be held for making statements that the Ethiopian government itself is now making. Ethiopia’s experiment in ethnic federalism, launched in 1991, and described by many observers as divisive, has been very much tempered by the government of late. While expressing acceptance of his current life, Prof. Asrat also noted that he has consistently been denied the rights of other Ethiopian prisoners. While in prison, he was not allowed to talk with fellow prisoners and was not treated promptly for his medical conditions. While in hospital, he was not allowed any visitors for two months. Most of all, he has not been allowed to write. Prof. Asrat Woldeyes lived almost his entire life as a distinguished academic and the country’s leading surgeon before becoming involved in politics, starting and leading an opposition party called AAPO, the All Amhara People’s Organization in 1991. At a time when the transitional government was encouraging the country and political parties to divide along ethnic lines, Prof. Asrat’s party was seen as threatening because it represented Ethiopia’s dominant ethnic group. In three trials declared unfair by Amnesty International, he was sentenced to five years and six months in prison, starting in June 1994, for the crime of inciting armed revolt. (See the January 1995 issue of ER).
Interview
Friday, May 15, 1998
Black Lion Hospital, Addis Abeba
Q. I will start with the traditional question. How is your health?
A. Well, I have been admitted to this hospital because my health had failed. Now I am improving and at the present moment I think I am on the right track and I hope within a few weeks I should get out of this hospital.
Q. Are you anxious to get out of the hospital?
A. Very much so. I am completely locked up in a cage [laugh] and because I am not well I don’t mind it, but I think, as soon as I feel well, certainly, I would like to get out into the world, even if it is to prison. At least there I can breath fresh air.
Q. It must be isolating here.
A. Totally. Completely. I don’t meet anybody, I don’t speak to anybody. It didn’t bother me very much before because I was not feeling well, but I think as soon as I feel right, I think I should get out. I am like a bird in a cage. At least a bird in a cage can even have fresh air coming through the cage fence, but during the night, the window is locked, so I can hardly even get fresh air. Everything is locked. Therefore, you can imagine, the sooner I get out, the better, even if it is to prison.
Q. So, this window is usually not open.
A. No. During the night, for about 12-13 hours [it’s closed] so that the bird will not fly out. [laugh]
Q. How is your treatment here?
A. Well, this hospital was built under my chairmanship [laugh]. So the whole history of this hospital, from its inception, it was under my committee that it was built. It’s a medical-school hospital and I was previously twice a dean of the medical school, therefore I am not in a strange place. Most of them are my students, so that’s all right. The only thing, of course, is that some things are beyond the present situation of Ethiopia. For quite a long time, medically, there is a limitation. It is that limitation, obviously, that I also share and since I am a prisoner, more so. With the exception of that, from the professional point of view, they are doing their best, whatever they can, because I am a member of the family. Nothing is refrained or denied from me.
Q. Are you happy with the care you are getting here or do you wish you were somewhere else, getting a different kind of care?
A. For some of the conditions that I have, the capability is limited here, and that is known by the professionals themselves. Even investigating, for example, my sight, is limited here. Therefore, they are only going empirically, as we did a hundred years ago. We go on what we call clinical grounds, so if we want to verify specific investigations, it’s limited for certain things I have. Many people have recommended that…, well, certainly, if I were not a prisoner, I would have gone abroad to a special place.
Q. Can you tell me, as a professional, your various conditions, your illnesses?
A. Basically, I was admitted into this hospital because of sight… suddenly I became partially blind. But since I came to this hospital, they found minor things additionally. For example, I have been found to be mildly diabetic. I didn’t even have the symptoms when I was in prison, but here that has been found and I am getting treatment for that. I also have been found to be moderately hypertensive. That is obviously not a surprise given the conditions I live under in prison. So I am getting treatment, but the main problem which got me admitted was this partial blindness, which obviously requires more specialized investigations and management than is within the capacity of this place. So we go on simply empirically get aspirinthat’s allso further blood clotting does not occur [a blood clot caused the damage to his eye]. And certainly, I am happy to say, I am not getting worse. I am improving. This is the beauty of Mother Nature, whom we don’t remember, her ability, her capacity. Because the doctor, no matter how knowledgeable, is limited: he only assists Mother Nature. He cannot create anything. My sight is also improving. So I think I am on the right track.
Q. When do you anticipate getting out?
A. I hope that within a few weeks I should get out, because I have been here quite a long time, over three months.
Q. Isn’t your prison sentence also coming to an end?
A. Well, I have multiple sentences. All those three charges… for which I have been sentenced, those sentences I have finished legally. In actual fact, given the date of parole, I have finished my prison sentence according to the law. I finished it about four months ago, five months ago. But I now have a fourth case, which is still going on after over two-and-a-half years. I am waiting for that sentence. That is why I am in prison. Because I have got a pending charge and because it is considered serious, I am not allowed to be out. The parole is given by the court and is dependent only on behavior in prison, not obeying rules and regulation, so nobody can deny me. Simply, politically, I am refused. All of my charges are the same charge, that I have opposed the government. Now in true legality, they should all be gathered under one charge, because it is one government and I am one person and the accusations are one. But they are divided purposely, so that I’ll have multiple cases and so that I will stay in prison for the rest of my life. Everybody else who is in prison, his case takes only six months or one year, but mine is every month. I go to court, I have an appointment, but even then it is not finished, and it’s two and a half years. I am still going every month to the court, except now while I’ve been in hospital.
Q. Tell me about the contempt of court charge.
A. I got the contempt of court charge simply because I said to the court that the court should not waste it’s valuable time on having me come every month to the court and make an appearance as though there was a real legal case, when it was very well-known that at the end of all of the proceedings, that I was going to be found guilty and sentenced. Therefore, I requested of the court to save its valuable time and to sentence me now. This would also allow me to have physical rest in prison. So this was considered contempt of court, so I was sentenced for six months.
Q. What about the previous charge for which you were sentenced?
A. I am legally permitted to be a political party head. As the head of a political party, I am legally permitted to make a speech. I am a person who has a license to be the leader of a political party. I am permitted by the government, there is nothing secret that I have done. I made a speech in Debre Birhan, to about eight to ten thousand people. I made a speech of about one hour. I went [from] Addis Abeba by car in the morning, I made a speech by noon, I had my lunch, I came back to Addis. Two months later, my speech was read word by word to the public, to Ethiopia, by [government] radio, by [government] television… That speech was considered as an attempt to put down the government. Now, if that was wrong, isn’t it the Minister of Information who is responsible, the one who made the whole public know about it? However, that is the type of free speech that is permitted. Even by our law, the Ethiopian law, the fact that you have thought certain things cannot make you guilty. Even if you want to kill somebody, you have thought about it, you cannot be accused of murder. You have to execute that in practice. Now, I only made a speech and for that I was sentenced for three years. I made that speech because not only is it permitted… but I have permission as a political party [leader] by the government. Secondly, I didn’t go out and just make a speech like that. The authorities in Debre Birhan received what is required, they had been informed, they had given permission. Everything was done according to the law. Therefore, what is it really that is wrong? And yet the court sentenced me. So, it is futile. History and time will judge. You know, there is a saying in my language, Amharic: the crow you want to eat, you call pheasant. To get other people to accept your act. That is my situation.
Q. Can you describe your life in the hospital?
A. Since I’ve been in the hospital for over three months, it’s the same. From Monday to Monday it is exactly the same. I am in this one single room. I don’t get out of this room at all, even for medical investigation. For almost every investigation, the machine is brought to this room. Second, I cannot even get fresh air. For 12-13 hours of the day it [the window] is locked. So I am locked in this room, this one room. I cannot go anywhere, I don’t meet anybody. Even the doctors… only the main doctors who are responsible for looking after me who are let in. And, for over two months, I didn’t have even a relative come to see me. In this country, from the Ethiopian cultural point of view, there is nothing more important than this. To me it doesn’t matter, but to Ethiopians, somebody who is sick, the most important thing is visits. For two months I didn’t have a single person even to visit me here. It’s only in the last month that a few peoplenow two groups of people, two representatives of my friends and two of my relativeswho are allowed once a week on the weekend.
Q. There are many questions I could ask you, but I’m not confident that the questions I would ask you are the ones that would elicit what is most on your mind. What are you thinking about here?
A. That’s a very broad question. Of course I think. I have nothing else to do here, since it is only the last few weeks that I am able to read. I think the great punishment has been that, because I cannot read, I cannot see anybody, I cannot talk to anybody. Nevertheless, because mentally and psychologically I understand the situation, I have been able to cope with it. And I am lucky, over the last month now I have improved and I am reading, so, although I don’t read as before, as fast, at least I can read now. For this reason, I am improving and I am accepting the situation. Not accepting the situation you are in, you only hurt yourself. Therefore, I accept. Not because they are correct, but I accept because I cannot do anything about it; it is beyond my power. Time will be the better judge than human beings. Therefore, I am comforted by these things. My only crime is that I have all my life served my people and my country. My crime is simply my dedication to this country. Because of that, I consider any punishment as acceptable. There is nothing that I’ve done to a single human being, let alone to my people or this country.
Q. What were the prison conditions like?
A. Well, the prison conditions, for everybody they are the same. As far as I am concerned, whatever the conditions are, I do not complain. The only thing is whether it was right for me to belong there, even if it is comfortable (and the prison situation certainly, even for the Ethiopian situation today, is really quite terrible). But the question is, do I deserve it? I am truly a political prisoner, there is nothing else. I have not done any other crime. First, in this country, it is our culture, it is our history, that you do not imprison a political prisoner amongst [common] criminals. But now we are civilized… we are such a fantastic, twentieth-century civilized nation, that we have political prisoners, murderers, thieves, everybody imprisoned in the same place. Second, is that I am handled in that place completely uniquely, not like other prisoners. I am not allowed to talk to a single prisoner. If anybody talks to me, he will be called and he will be taken into a hardship area. So no prisoner talks to me. I cannot talk to anybody. They don’t tell me “Don’t talk!” But anybody who talks to me, he gets it. I am completely restricted, isolated. Third, is that, when I am sick, I don’t get attention. There is a committee within every room, and the committee is responsible to have any prisoner who is sick be examined in the clinic by the doctors and get his medical treatment. Not with me. For me, it has to be reported to the authorities that I am sick. Therefore, if it takes a prisoner one day to see a doctor, for me it takes about five days to one week. The case in point is my admission. It was four weeks after I got sick that I was admitted to this hospital. But if the court has sentenced me as a prisoner, I should be treated like every other prisoner. In addition, the only thing I am allowed is to read. But whatever I write, every month all the prisoners are searched, and it will be taken. If I’m allowed to write, I will write and people can read it, then I wouldn’t mind being in prison. They can imprison me for the rest of my life.
Q. What do you see for the future? For yourself, for the nation.
A. For my nation, things started to go wrong not now, but some time ago. Second, Ethiopia, like any other country in the world today, is not an entity by itself [that] can think, determine, and conduct its affairs by itself. It is part of this complex universe. And being part of that, because it is a weak part, no matter how much culture it has, no matter how much history, it has to bow to the forces of the world. Unfortunately, the forces that are in the driving seat of this world are so myopic. So, while the world is becoming a sort of village, is Ethiopia really getting the idea? Because it is weak. Unfortunately, a country like Ethiopia, and others all over the world, is exposed to forces of deception, to people who are appreciated by those forces. And therefore, the nation’s [future] is determined totally by forces other than the real interests within the nation itself. I am saddened, that the outside forcesyou see, it’s not the inside forces, it’s the outside forces who completely have only their own interests at heartwho are denying the country.
Certainly, for people like me, I am comforted. I may die tomorrow, but I have no doubt of the future trend of my nation. I have no doubt whatsoever. I may not be here, but it doesn’t matter, I have contributed. I have thrown one pebble. I am lying in here and I am seeing it. Yesterday I was [listening on the radio about the conflict with the Eritrean government]. I predicted this some few years ago. That’s why I am in prison.
I have no doubt whatsoever of my nation’s straightening itself out within a short while. I have no doubt, whether I will be able to see it or not, I have no doubt. My nation will sort itself out, and it is starting already. Within even the two or three months that I have been lying here, it is sorting itself out, hmn? The present forces are saying what I was saying just five years ago, for which I am imprisoned. I personally have no doubt in the straightening out of my nation, I have no doubt, it is a question of time.
Q. With or without this government?
A. Even with this government, because it cannot survive, you see? I am 100 percent certain it is a question only of time, you will see. Everything will fall into its place. You cannot divide people into boxes of ethnicity, it’s impossible, and you cannot build a nation in that way. You don’t develop the nation this way, you only destroy whatever little development you have. Nobody is against, I am not against the people in power, I am not. Anybody can be in power. The only thing is, for heaven’s sake, don’t set fire next door and next door, and all of us just become ashes. That is why I got into this thing. Because there was a madness that was really going on.
Q. Any last thoughts?
A. I think an individual as me is really of no importance. My concern is the misunderstandings that are going on. My only wish is that the people who will read the outcome of your effort will look a bit deeper than the surface and get a better understanding of what is going on, so to contribute finally to the betterment of human beings in general. The life of today only catches the surface. Things of depth take time to understand. My country, Ethiopia, is really a case in pointit is totally misunderstood.
I think it is only a question of time before things correct themselves. You can drive water uphill, but not for long. Therefore, I am comforted that things are correcting themselves. I’m not angry that, I believe, I am imprisoned unfairly. History will testify for me. It doesn’t matter, it’s politics. I also understand that. So I am not concerned about my individual self. My concern and interest is the welfare of this nation. Finally, my life being, as you see, a life of isolation in a room, certainly it is very pleasing, very gratifying that you have taken the trouble to come, and for me at least to interact with a human being. I thank you very much indeed.
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Wendy Belcher is a Contributing Editor of ER. She lives in Los Angeles.
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