Tymoshenko's hunger strike is no use -- official

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KIEV, Ukraine, April 26 (UPI) -- Officials say the hunger strike staged by imprisoned ex-Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to protest her treatment would only help her alleged abusers.

Elmar Brok, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the European Parliament, says the strike is no use.

"We are already in contact with doctors in Berlin and we will react to the political situation in the Ukraine," Brok told Deutsche Welle. "But Ms. Tymoshenko will help neither herself nor her cause with a hunger strike. It would only help Mr. Yanukovych [Ukraine's president] who is clearly violating human rights."

Brok said Tymoshenko does not trust her doctors, who are reported to be giving her the wrong medications for her precarious condition, the details of which have not been made public.

"The terrible physical and psychological pressure on Ms. Tymoshenko is being applied by a government that is doing everything legally wrong it can possibly do," Brok said. "However, I would like Ms. Tymoshenko not to go on this hunger strike. We will support her in all possible ways but she should not endanger her life."