On May 9, imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko came off a 20-day hunger strike in protest of her alleged mistreatment by prison guards.
But she wasn’t the only one. Her fans also launched a fast in sympathy of her, joined by two members of parliament from the minority Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko faction and six other supporters. But they say others – perhaps 100 around Ukraine – joined them.
Tymoshenko’s German doctor, Luts Harms, said it will take her at least eight weeks to recover completely from the effects of lack of nutrition.
“A camp town of hunger strikers was opened in Boryspil, on May 7. There are also such camps in Lviv, Brovary and other Ukrainian cities,” says Oleksandr Bryhinets, a Kyiv city council deputy from the BYuT- Batkivshchyna faction. Bryhintets started his hunger strike in Kyiv, on April 24. That’s four days after Tymoshenko launched hers, about the same time she said guards roughed her up while forcibly removing her from prison to a hospital in Kharkiv.
Bryhintets said they didn’t believe their protests would change the “catastrophic” situation in the country, but he believes the strikers brought more international attention to Ukraine’s democratic setbacks under President Viktor Yanukovych.
“I understand Yanukovych won’t change his mind because of our hunger strike. Otherwise I’d sit with a hunger strike ribbon on my head near the Presidential Administration long ago,” Bryhinets says. “But I am sure that international boycott that is in process now is at list one percent caused by our hunger strike.”
Their devotion is proof that Tymoshenko still commands a following.
“When I found out she’s been beaten and goes on a hunger strike, I just didn’t want to eat any more,” says Lilia Klinchuk, a 40-year-old teacher and artist.
But at least two of the eight in Kyiv ended the strike after developing health problems, and the rest had no intention of taking the fast too far. “No one wants to die for the truth, but rather we want to become stronger to fight for it.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected]
