Family worried over Ukraine opp leader's health

The family of Yulia Tymoshenko voiced fears over her health Tuesday as the jailed ex-premier extended her hunger strike into a twelfth day and Kiev faced a boycott of its hosting of Euro football games.

The fiery opposition leader's daughter Yevgenia Tymoshenko said the authorities were barring her from visiting her mother in prison on account of the May Day holidays 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 in a statement published on her mother's website.

"It is the holidays now, we are not being allowed to see her and we have no idea what might happen in the meantime. We are extremely concerned."

The former 2004 Orange Revolution leader began fasting to protest an alleged beating she received by three prison guards. Her supporters later released pictures of stomach bruises on Tymoshenko they said backed those claims.

Tymoshenko was jailed for seven years in October in a highly controversial case that damaged Ukraine's relations with the European Union and prompted a chorus of calls for President Viktor Yanukovych to release his political rival.

But the authorities have since opened new hearings against her relating to tax charges dating back to the 1990s that may extend her stay in jail until 2023.

European concern intensified Monday when the office of European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said he had "no intention" of travelling to Ukraine when it begins co-hosting the football tournament with Poland on June 8.

At least five European presidents simultaneously declined invitations to attend a May 11-12 summit in the Black Sea report of Yalta and signalled their plans to also miss the Euro event.

Yevgenia urged Ukrainians to rise up in protest and match the concern expressed over her mother's treatment by EU states.

"If the regime of Yanukovych did this to a former prime minister, imagine what it can do to each one of you," the 32-year-old pleaded.

Yanukovych himself has stayed silent on the boycott and has thus far issued no public statement on Tymoshenko's hunger strike.

He issued a May Day message on Tuesday saying the holidays should "reinforce our strength and trust in ourselves."

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