KIEV // The family of Yulia Tymoshenko voiced fears over her health yesterday as the jailed former premier extended her hunger strike into a 12th day and Kiev faced a political boycott of its hosting of Euro 2012 football matches.
The opposition leader's daughter, Yevgenia Tymoshenko, said the authorities were barring her from visiting her mother in prison on account of the May Day holiday and urged Ukrainians to call their leaders to account.
"Mum has been fasting for 12 days. We are very worried about her health," Yevgenia said on her mother's website.
The former 2004 Orange Revolution leader began fasting to protest a beating she said she received by three prison guards. Her supporters later released pictures of stomach bruises on Tymoshenko they said backed those claims.
Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison in October in a highly controversial case that damaged Ukraine's relations with the European Union.
On Monday, the office of the European Commission chief José Manuel Barroso said he had "no intention" of travelling to Ukraine when it begins co-hosting the football tournament with Poland next month.
At least five European presidents also declined invitations to attend a summit next week in Yalta and signalled their plans to also miss the tournament.
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.