A Call to Help Launch the ASRAT Media Network – Assefa Negash, M. D.

Dear compatriots

You may ask, why I should post an appeal letter meant to save the life of professor Asrat Woldeyes which I wrote 21 years now. I wrote this appeal letter in April 1998 while professor Asrat was still suffering in prison. This letter was sent to the Amnesty International office in London. It was Mr. Martin Hill of Amnesty International (AI) with whom I communicated as he was responsible for the Horn of Africa desk of AI. He said, I am happy that we have now received a report bearing on the alarming medical condition of prof. Asrat written by a medical doctor. I am not a medical doctor but I will forward this appeal letter to our medical officer and subsequently we would issue a communique within three days. True to Mr. Martin Hill’s words of promise, the Amnesty International communique was issued on April 30, 1998 just two days after I sent them this report. I was pleasantly surprised with the speed with which they acted on this information seriously. Later, in December 1998, when professor Asrat was allowed to leave Ethiopia for treatment abroad, I went to London, UK to visit him in hospital. There I also met Mr. Martin Hill who was also there to pay visit to professor Asrat. I thanked him and his organization AI for their exemplary effort in issuing the communique that voiced the plight of professor Asrat Woldeyes although that effort could not save his life. 

I am posting this appeal letter firstly because many of you may talk note of the price a towering figure i.e.  professor Asrat Woldeyes paid with his life to promote the welfare of Ethiopians and in defense of Ethiopia, in our recent history. Secondly, I am posting this letter with the intention of galvanizing the fund-raising drive which just started a few days ago to set up a media outlet which we have lacked so far. This media network would be an institution that immortalizes the cause of freedom and rule of law for which professor Asrat and millions of Ethiopians gave their lives. What I am herewith posting relates the suffering professor Asrat Woldeyes underwent in prison for more than 5 years and the process of cumulative suffering that led to his untimely death in May 1998. The causes i.e. freedom, democracy and rule of law for which professor Asrat died have not been achieved yet. He had paid the ultimate price for the cause of Ethiopia and had particularly championed the cause of Amharas who have been marked as evil-doers. The Amhara ethnic group has been singled out as a whole and its collective ethnic or group identity has been subjected to wholesale demonization. Subsequently, the Amharas have been subjected to incessant persecution, genocide, rape, persecution, displacement, harassment, marginalization, systematic impoverishment, dehumanization and deliberately exposed to preventable epidemic diseases, etc. This is a group which has been subjected to forced sterilization of its women and in some cases men by way of arresting the demographic growth of Amharas. Today the Amhara region leads the country in terms of child mortality rate(Somali region is also similar), malnutrition, trachoma, lack of clean potable water, lack of infrastructural development, high drop-out or attrition rate of children at schools. As I scribble down this note, this year alone more than 700000 Amhara children have been forced to quit schools because their impoverished parents cannot support them. Out of 9310 schools found in the Amhara region, 82,05% of elementary schools and 79.4% of high schools are below standard in terms of quality of educational manpower at their disposal, education facilities (books, chairs, lab equipment, etc) present in these schools.  One big instrument which facilitated the dehumanization of Amharas and the deconstruction of pan-Ethiopian identity with which they have always been strongly identified is the monopolistic control of the media by the TPLF regime. This has allowed TPLF to wage an incessant propaganda war against the Amharas. Toxic narratives pilloried the Amharas, misrepresented them as evil-doers, expansionists, etc and have subsequently wrought untold harm to the Amharas. These toxic narratives, which have weighed down on the psyche of millions of Amharas were meant to dull their senses, belittle their standing in society, tarnish their self-image, depress their self-esteem, scar their conscience and render them guilt-ridden. These toxic narratives elaborated and churned out by the TPLF regime and its associates were meant to misrepresent the collective and individual contributions of Amharas to the Ethiopian society, culture and history. All this was meant to reduce Amharas into a state of self-hate, self-depreciation, apathy and inaction. These measures of TPLF and Co. have the ultimate goal of condemning Amharas to passive acceptance of their criminalized identity and acquiesce to the collective punishment to which they have been exposed for 27 years (39 years in the case of the people of Welkait and Tsegede). To this effect, words and phrases that run the whole gamut of epithets connoting negative sentiments and loaded negative emotional valences such as ነፍጠኛ (rifle-men)፤ ወራሪ፤ ተስፋፊ(expansionist)፤ ጥገኛ (parasite)፤ ጡት ቆራጭ (breast-cutter)፤ ትምክህተኛ (chauvinist) etc have been hurled at Amharas. It is this misrepresentation of the Amhara people which has been insidiously and guilefully building up for the last 60 years that finally morphed into the genocidal campaign that resulted in the disappearance of millions of Amharas from the census count and the displacement of hundreds of thousands as witness what transpired in Arba Gugu, Welkait, Tsegede, Benishangul, Gura Ferda, Gida Kiramu, Western Shewa, etc during the last 27 years. The destabilization and the displacement have not abated to this day. It is time to correct this misrepresentation and create a space for the voiceless millions who have been scarred by incessant propaganda of the fascist regime of TPLF and its allies. In this sense, the effort to create a media network, bearing the name of professor Asrat Woldeyes, immortalizes the cause of freedom and equality for which this towering figure suffered in the dungeons of TPLF and finally died subsequent to the irreversible harm done to his life. So, I urge all democratic-minded Ethiopians, who have so far felt helpless to do anything about Ethiopia, to at least contribute financially to this cause and make this media a reality. Please let us join this noble effort by pledging money to the current fund-raising drive organized from inside Ethiopia by a committee led and coordinated by trusted individuals who have proved their mettle for sticking out their necks under difficult circumstances obtaining in Ethiopia. So, let us join these compatriots right now!!!!! Indifference to this noble endeavor is tantamount to letting the people who have paid with their lives in Ethiopia out in the cold and abandoning the noble cause for which individuals such as professor Asrat have altruistically sacrificed their lives.  

Assefa Negash, M. D.

Amstelveen, the Netherlands – 2 February, 2019

[email protected]    

Support link: https://www.gofundme.com/6tcxkwg

THE ALARMING MEDICAL CONDITION OF PROFESSOR ASRAT WOLDEYES –
April 1998

Appeal Letter Prepared for the Campaign related to the Release from Prison of Professor Asrat Woldeyes

by

The ETHIOPIAN INFORMATION SERVICE NETWORK IN HOLLAND (SHINE) AMSTERDAM (HOLLAND) – APRIL 24, 1998

A – Background to Professor Asrat’s Imprisonment

Professor Asrat Woldeyes, who will be 70 years old this coming June 1998 (he was born in Addis Ababa on June 20, 1928[1]) is currently in prison after he has been falsely charged by the incumbent TPLF government for “inciting war” during a speech he delivered in Debre Birhan town in 1992. Following the seizure of power by the incumbent government in May 1991, a policy of divide and rule based on ethnicity was introduced in Ethiopia. The Amhara ethnic group has been falsely identified and singled out as the cause of all of Ethiopia’s problems and accordingly subjected to wholesale demonization of its identity, persecution, discrimination and ethnic cleansing in areas like Bedeno, Arba Gugu, Arsi Neghele, Wellega, etc. This necessitated the emergence of an organization which peacefully opposes this discriminatory policy. Hence the emergence of the All Amhara People’s Organization (AAPO) under the leadership of the eminent Ethiopian surgeon Professor Asrat Woldeyes. The AAPO came into being as a legally registered organization to promote the interest of its members and supporters through peaceful methods of struggle. It exposed the mayhem perpetrated against defenseless civilians who happen to be Christian Amharas and Amharic speaking Oromos, Gurages, Kembatas, etc in areas like Bedeno (regarding the killings in Bedeno, see reports of Africa Watch 1992, Amnesty International 1993) Arba Gugu (see EHRCO’s first and third reports, 1991 and 1992 respectively), Mugi, Arsi Neghele, etc (for details see the reports of AAPO  1992 and 1993). It exposed the wanton killings, rape of women and girls; decried the destruction and expropriation of property belonging to Amharas and Amharic speakers dotted in every nook and corner of Ethiopia, exposed the burning of churches and mosques in areas like Metekel (see EHRCO’s third report, 1992) that were being used by Amharas and Amharic speakers. All these peaceful protests of the AAPO against these wanton acts of destruction of human life and property infuriated the incumbent TPLF government. The growing popularity of AAPO was such that the incumbent government decided to bring false charges against its leaders and weaken and obliterate the organization. This led to the imprisonment, in June 1994, of professor Asrat and his colleagues on trumped-up charges of sedition. He was sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment on two separate charges. A third, and even more serious trumped-up charge (i.e inciting an armed rebellion against the incumbent regime), is pending decision by the kangaroo court of the incumbent regime. So far professor Asrat has been forced to appear in court on more than 170 occasions. 

B – Imprisonment and Prison Conditions:    

Professor Asrat shares a prison cell with several dozens of prisoners in one of the most dilapidated and vermin-infested prisons of Addis Abeba in Ethiopia. 

C – Medical Problems of Professor Asrat: 

Prof. Asrat suffers from chronic heart disease and had undergone three bypass operations in the 1980’s. Since his involvement in Ethiopian politics in January 1992, he has been exposed to physical and psychological harassment by the incumbent TPLF government. While in prison, he has developed Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus – two chronic diseases that adversely impact the circulatory system of the body. Given his advanced age and the stressful life he leads as prisoner in the notorious prison of Addis Abeba, the imminent danger posed to his life by these diseases is enormous. On January 4, 1998 professor Asrat failed to appear in court due to severe illness. It was then that we learned about his severe illness. Weeks before the scheduled January 4, 1998 appointment, at which he was supposed to appear in court, professor Asrat had appealed to the prison authorities to send him to doctors for treatment. It was only weeks after he made repeated appeals for medical attention that he was finally sent on January 2, 1998 to the prison clinic which is located in the compound of the Kershele prison. Although the health professionals at the prison clinic referred him to the Menelik II hospital, it was only after a week i.e. on January 9, 1998 that he was taken to the Menelik II hospital. Alarmed by the sheer severity of his illness and unable to attend to his complicated clinical case, the doctors at Menelik II hospital immediately referred him to the Tikur Anbessa teaching hospital where he served his country with extraordinary dedication and altruism till his expulsion from his job as a professor of surgery of the Addis Ababa medical school in 1993. But the government authorities rejected the advice of the doctors at Menilik II hospital and refused to take professor Asrat to the Tikur Anbessa hospital. Accordingly, he was returned from the Menelik II hospital to his Kershele prison cell thereby denying him immediate medical attention by the specialists of the Tikur Anbessa hospital. This was contrary to the advice of the doctors at Menelik II hospital who referred him to Tikur Anbessa hospital. He had to wait for two solid weeks before he was finally admitted to the Tikur Anbessa hospital on January 24, 1998. By the time he was admitted to the Tikur Anbessa hospital, the vision of his right eye has already been severely impaired and both the glucose level in is blood and his blood pressure were abnormally high suggesting severe damage sustained by the major organs of his body as a result of the combined effects (complications) of the Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus he developed in prison which synergistically precipitated stroke. Stroke is a clinical condition by whereby an abrupt interruption of constant blood flow to the brain causes loss of neurological function. Actually, before he was taken to the Tikur Anbessa hospital, he has already suffered from a stroke which resulted in the visual impairment of his right eye (a clinical condition known as hemianopsia). The impairment of his eye sight is logical sequelae of the stroke he suffered consequent upon the cerebrovascular accident. The cerebrovascular accident is consequence of the synergetic effect of chronic heart disease from which he suffers, hypertension, diabetes mellitus (he developed in prison) and deliberate exposure to chronic stress (repeated court appearances, lack of proper sleep in prison, etc). The combination of Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension are deadly and especially so when viewed against the background of an elderly man like professor Asrat who suffers from chronic heart disease, dehumanization and humiliation by prison officials and guards.    

D   The Imminent Dangers Posed to Professor Asrat’s Life: 

It is apposite to bring to the attention of readers of this report the dangers to which professor Asrat is exposed. A thumb nail sketch of the medical complications that threaten the life of this great Ethiopian surgeon is in order here. As we have stated earlier professor Asrat already suffers from chronic heart disease for which he had to undergo three by-pass operations in the 1980s. He is dependent on pacemaker. His advanced age cum the stressful life he leads in prison, the repeated bouts of court appearances he is subjected to, etc in Ethiopia are such as to make him susceptible to more medical complications. In the notorious Kershele prison of Addis Abeba, he developed two major diseases i.e. Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus. Both of these diseases primarily attack the circulatory system and lead to complications which adversely affect the major organs of the body such as brain, heart, kidney, etc. The two new diseases which he developed while in prison make the whole clinical picture even more gloomy. Diabetes Mellitus is a disease which affects, among other things, the major organs of our body such as the heart (cardiovascular diseases), the kidney (kidney failure, hypertension, etc), the eyes (diabetic retinopathy that lead to blindness), the brain (cause brain damage due to stroke), diabetic neuropathy, etc. What is more, owing to the metabolic deregulation to which diabetics are so often exposed under stressful conditions (lack of sleep, chronic worries, harassment by prison guards and officials, etc) the life of a diabetic patient put in prison is susceptible to the paroxysms of deadly complications that lead to stroke. Diabetic patients such as professor Asrat living under stressful conditions obtaining in prison can be punctuated by coma or eventually death in consequence of what is clinically termed as diabetic ketoacidosis. Diabetic ketoacidosis which presupposes a combination of a very high blood sugar level, dehydration, shoc, and exhaustion eventually causes unconsciousness and coma. From a medical and clinical perspectives, what makes the case of professor Asrat very alarming is the combined effects of the following conditions which, taken together, can prove very fatal at any one time and are more likely to lead to repeated bouts of fatal cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) such as stroke. In professor Asrat’s case, these predisposing factors to repeated bouts of strokes and deadly complications are:

1   his advanced age (he is currently approaching 70 years of age – professor Asrat Woldeyes was born in Addis Ababa on June 20, 1928[2])  

2   his chronic heart condition and clinical history of triple by-pass operations which he had undergone in the 1980’s;    

3   the hypertension he recently developed in prison;    

4   the diabetes Mellitus he developed in prison;    

5   the very inhospitable and insalubrious living condition obtaining in one of the maximum-security prisons which is known for its notorious living conditions and the daily stress he has been exposed to in this prison for the last 4 years. All these factors conspire to worsen the clinical condition of this elderly Ethiopian. Add to this the effort of the regime in trying to prolong his suffering by exposing him to a series of endless court appearances which are adjourned on various lame pretexts. As noted earlier on, professor Asrat has been forced to go through a grueling experience of appearing in court on more than 170 occasions in the last four years alone. From here, one can easily infer or deduce the stress he has deliberately been exposed to by such lengthy and physically and emotionally over-taxing court appearances that sap the psychic and physical stamina of a human being. Suffice it to underline the fact that given the stressful condition he lives in now, even under proper treatment the positive effect of medical treatment on Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus can be invalidated or neutralized by stress which has a deregulating or destabilizing effect on the clinical course of these two diseases.  

E   Professor Asrat’s Condition in Hospital

Professor Asrat is currently hospitalized in the Tikur Anbessa Hospital in Addis Abeba. He has been in this hospital for more than three months now. The room he is hospitalized in is located on the 8th floor of the hospital building and it is 2 meters by 3 meters (a surface area of 6 square meters) in size and contains a toilet. In the room are found also a hospital bed on which professor Asrat sleeps, a table and a chair. He has not been allowed to go out of this room even for a second during the last three months of his hospitalization. The door is always closed and as such it lacks ventilation. Professor Asrat has stated that he suffers from lack of fresh air as the room is always closed. Especially during the night since the window is also closed, he suffers from suffocation. His room is constantly guarded by soldiers of the incumbent TPLF government. He is under surveillance 24 hours in a day. When he eats, the soldiers are there in his room constantly watching him. When the few friends who are allowed to visit him come to his room, the soldiers are present and as such no detailed communication with him about his medical condition is possible. This is what professor Asrat recently said about his condition:

“Bleeding has occurred in my brain. There is also clotted blood in my brain. This has caused the visual impairment which has affected my sight. The blood pressure and the glucose level in the blood constantly change or oscillate (being high sometimes and normalizing at other times). Now it has approximated the normal level. Last week I was very sick and I felt as if a hundred kilo of weight was put on my head. My brain does not work properly now. I cannot think properly at this moment and I am confused. I have begun to forget things”.

As he has been in bed all this time he is in hospital, we have not been able to establish with certainty difficulties he has while walking or standing nor are we able to know if there is disturbance in his gait. Moreover, he has been observed stammering and stuttering. His legs are also swollen and this points to a clinical condition known as edema and which is suggestive of failure in the circulatory system of the body and can be caused, among other things, by failure of the heart and the kidney. The above description of professor Asrat himself, the clinical picture of loss of the sight of the right eye (hemianopsia which refers to blindness or a reduction in the field of vision caused by injury to the brain) and impaired vision in his left eye; speech difficulties such as stuttering and stammering; forgetfulness (amnesia), loss of memory, confusion and severe headache (the heavy feeling which he described above) are suggestive or symptoms of bleeding in the brain (hemorrhage in the brain) or major stroke which he has suffered and point to residual neurological deficits due to the complications of his ailing heart condition, hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus. Given the long duration of the neurological deficits which have continued to be present for several weeks now, it is not difficult to conclude that what professor Asrat suffered from is not a minor stroke medically known as transient ischemic attack (TIA) but a major stroke that leaves behind incapacitating neurological and ophthalmological deficits or complications such as those observed by medical doctors who diagnosed him. This is a life-threatening medical condition that needs a very urgent intervention and treatment.

Professor Asrat’s clinical case is not followed up by a particular medical doctor. Every time, a new doctor comes in to see him. And this has encumbered a thorough clinical follow-up of his medical condition. There is no one doctor who is willing to tell about his clinical condition to his closest family members and friends. According to the doctors who are treating him, it is “unethical” to give information to relatives and friends of professor Asrat. The American ambassador to Ethiopia, Mr. David Shinn has, in a letter dated 13 April 1998, stated that Mr. George Aldridge – the Human Rights Officer at the US embassy in Ethiopia has visited professor Asrat on January 27 and April 9, 1998. David Shinn stated in his letter that “Dr. Asrat asked that information pertaining to his medical condition be kept confidential and shared only with family members and close friends” (for details see ambassador David Shinn’s letter to Mr. Jonathan A. Davis Olo, spokesman of the committee which campaigns to Free professor Asrat). However, the said family members or close friends have so far been denied access to any information regarding the clinical condition of professor Asrat. Family members and close friends do not know what the diagnosis of his medical condition is. They also know nothing about the results of the laboratory tests and examinations which he underwent so far. The family members of professor Asrat have not been informed about his medication or the prognosis of his clinical condition. What is more, as he is not allowed to leave his room, even necessary medical examinations which require his transfer to the rooms where these medical instruments are located are denied to professor Asrat. This says a lot about the so called “medical attention” he is getting in the hospital and casts doubt on the misleading statement of David Shinn to the effect that professor Asrat’s “condition has stabilized” and that he is “convalescing”.     

Although he has been admitted to hospital after long and unnecessary suffering which has resulted in complications to his organs (impairment of his vision following the stroke which he had suffered, damage to his brain, exacerbation of his heart problems, hypertension, diabetes, etc), he has been denied visit by family members and friends until just recently (it is only since 4 weeks that some of professor Asrat’s close friends have been allowed to visit him). According to Ambassador Shinn’s fax message, professor Asrat’s lawyer Ato Negatu Tesfaye was allowed to visit him in hospital only recently (on April 9, 1998). But he was prevented to from asking him questions about his health condition by the soldiers who guard him. Only doctors assigned to him by the incumbent government are allowed to see him. In complete violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which the incumbent Ethiopian government is a signatory, both the family members and friends and supporters of professor Asrat have been denied any access to information about his health condition to this very day. His close friends are allowed to visit him only since just 4 weeks. Before that no one was allowed to see him except the soldiers of the incumbent regime and the doctors which are assigned to him by the incumbent government. Till this day, friends and family members of professor Asrat are not allowed to have access to the medical specialists who are treating him currently. What sounds more criminal than preventing one’s relatives and friends from having access to the medical conditions of their dear one who is being hospitalized in hospital and after the patient has given his permission to confide the relevant medical information about his case to his family members and close relatives? These are violations of basic rights that are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which have been deceptively adopted by the constitution of the incumbent Ethiopian regime. We believe that both from medical and humanitarian perspectives such extreme security measures, which have denied him visits by family members and friends, have put a lot of stress on his life thereby making recovery of his health even more distant and difficult.

Secondly his medical treatment under conditions of constant surveillance by soldiers of the incumbent TPLF regime would render the treatment itself null and void given the element of stress which such continuous 24 hours surveillance of professor Asrat introduces in the whole picture of the therapeutic/treatment process. So, the first condition for his recovery is the lifting of this stressful and intrusive surveillance by government soldiers and security men.

Thirdly some of the doctors who are assigned to attend the medical problems of professor Asrat are close to this regime in terms of their political outlook and sympathy and this renders the whole therapeutic process even more cumbersome and suspect as it casts shadow on the smooth patient-doctor relationship of mutual trust which the successful treatment of such stress-sensitive diseases presupposes. Given the hostile attitude of the incumbent regime to professor Asrat and given the stress sensitiveness of the diseases from which professor Asrat currently suffers, we are afraid that his isolated and rather quarantined regime of treatment would not hasten his recovery. And it is unlikely that this man would recover from his sickness under conditions of enduring stress to which he is deliberately exposed both in prison (till recently) and in hospital (currently). As such we ask the international community and governments, who have a good rapport with the incumbent EPRDF government, to bring pressure to bear upon the Ethiopian government to allow professor Asrat a humane treatment. In the mean time we ask the incumbent government to waive or lift the constant regime of surveillance over professor Asrat and allow him to be treated by medical specialists of his choice who put their professional integrity before their political loyalty. But given professor Asrat’s alarming medical condition (hemorrhage in his brain), it is clear that he needs to get neurosurgical operation which is not available in present day Ethiopia. Hence the need to allow this man to be treated outside Ethiopia where such treatment is available. Failure to do so would be condemning him to an untimely and agonizing death in the small hospital room which he has not been allowed to leave even for a second for more than three months now. We ask groups like the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) and Physicians for Human Rights to send a team of medical professionals with a view to neutrally asses the condition of professor Asrat now hospitalized at the Tikur Anbessa hospital and help him get the necessary treatment. We appeal to all of you who read this report to reach groups like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights based in your respective areas of residence and ask them to intervene on behalf of professor Asrat. Physicians for Human Rights is an organization which specifically campaigns on behalf of people like professor Asrat who are denied the necessary health care owing to the political opinion they hold. We should note that the TPLF regime has caused the death of hundreds of innocent civilians by denying them adequate medical care while holding them in detention illegally. The death of scores of innocent Ethiopian civilians accused of being OLF supporters (in Hurso, Ziway prisons), AAPO supporters (in Debre Birhan, Debre Tabor, Gayinet, Gojjam, Wello, Gondar, etc), SEPDC members (in areas like Gedeo, Awassa, Gamu Gofa, Shashemene etc) and alleged members of the ONLF (in the Ogaden region) should serve us as reminder about the atrocities perpetrated by the TPLF government on innocent civilians and prisoners of conscience by denying them medical care. In this regard it is instructive to remember how the veteran ETA leader, Ato Kebede Desta (a man who suffers from Diabetes Mellitus and  Hypertension and is in custody in the Kershele prison of Addis Abeba), has lost the vision of his right eye and sustained severe damage to his left eye after he has been denied medical treatment by the incumbent government (for a painful account of this story see the Ethiopian Register magazine issue of February 1998 in which the text of the testimony given by Mr. Kebede Desta during his court appearance was reproduced in detail). The incumbent TPLF regime is continuing to deny prisoners of conscience the right to medical care. It is an inhumane act which we should all expose and oppose to the end. And with this report we ask the international community to stand on the side of those innocent victims who run the gauntlet of TPLF’s dictatorial rule on a daily basis. What is more apt than ending our report with the following words of anguish expressed by professor Asrat from that small hospital room of Tikur Anbessa hospital in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. This is what he has said the following regarding his condition of suffering:

 “I could have never believed if someone told me that Ethiopians can perpetrate so much cruelty on a fellow Ethiopian. But since I have myself experienced this cruelty now, I have come to believe what I never believed before”.

Dear readers, from this report you can infer or conclude the harm done to professor Asrat’s life. He has already sustained severe and irreversible damage to his brain and eye sight. For him the prospect of facing an even deadly cerebrovascular accident (CVA) once again is all the more likely. It is a great irony that this great Ethiopian surgeon, who came back from the University of Edinburgh to serve his country as the first medical doctor of the post-1941 generation of educated Ethiopians and who had saved many human lives during nearly 38 years of his dedicated professional life, is denied the very treatment he has been routinely extending to tens of thousands of Ethiopians and expatriates of all walks of life irrespective of their respective political persuasion, ethnic or religious origin.  Is it too much if we ask you to join the campaign for the freedom of this great man whose life is hanging in balance and can be punctuated by untimely death? Counting on your cooperation and support in getting the message across about the impending dangers seriously threatening professor Asrat’s life. Thank you for all your cooperation.  

With best regards,   

Assefa Negash, M.D.

E mail ——->  [email protected] (this was our email address then which is now out of use). My present email address is: [email protected]  

ETHIOPIAN INFORMATION SERVICE NETWORK IN HOLLAND (SHINE) AMSTERDAM (HOLLAND) – APRIL 24, 1998

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[1] – For details regarding the biography of Professor Asrat Woldeyes, refer to my paper entitled: FROM THE SURGICAL WARD TO THE POLITCAL FIELD: REFLECTIONS ON THE LIFE & WORKS OF PROFESSOR ASRAT WOLDEYES – a paper I presented at the Online-conference on Human Rights in Ethiopia organized by the Ethiopian Electronic Distribution Network (EEDN) in March 1997 while professor Asrat was still in prison.

[2] – For details regarding the biography of Professor Asrat Woldeyes, refer to my paper entitled: FROM THE SURGICAL WARD TO THE POLITCAL FIELD: REFLECTIONS ON THE LIFE & WORKS OF PROFESSOR ASRAT WOLDEYES – a paper I presented at the Online-conference on Human Rights in Ethiopia organized by the Ethiopian Electronic Distribution Network (EEDN) in March 1997 while professor Asrat was still in prison.

THE ALARMING MEDICAL CONDITION OF PROFESSOR ASRAT WOLDEYES