West readies sanctions on Russia after Crimea vote

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LONDON (AP) — The top diplomats for Russia and the U.S. voiced pessimism Friday about negotiating an immediate end to the crisis in Ukraine, whose strategic Crimea region is voting this weekend about whether to secede.

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Headed into a meeting in London, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov each said they were glad to talk before the Sunday referendum in Crimea. The vote on the strategic Black Sea peninsula of 2 million people is widely expected to back secession and, potentially, annexation with Russia.

The U.S. and EU say the Crimean vote violates Ukraine's constitution and international law while Russia has said it will respect the results of the referendum.

The new government in Kiev believes the vote is illegal, but Moscow says it does not recognize the new government's leader as legitimate. If Crimea secedes, the U.S. and European Union plan to slap sanctions as early as Monday on Russian officials and businesses accused of escalating the crisis and undermining Ukraine's new government.

"This is a difficult situation we are in," Lavrov told reporters before meeting with Kerry at the U.S. ambassador's residence. "Many events have happened and a lot of time has been lost, so now we have to see what can be done."

Kerry said he hoped to unearth "possibilities that we may be able to find about how to move forward, together, to resolve some of the differences between us."

"Obviously we have a lot to talk about," Kerry said.

European and U.S. leaders have repeatedly urged Moscow to pull back its troops in Crimea and stop encouraging local militias there who are hyping the vote as a choice between re-establishing generations of ties with Russia or returning to echoes of fascism from Ukraine's World War II era, when some residents cooperated with Nazi occupiers.

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and US Secretary of State John Kerry stand together pr …

The showdown between Russia and the West has been cast as a struggle for the future of Ukraine, a country with a size and population similar to France. Much of western Ukraine favors ties with the 28-nation European Union, while many in eastern Ukraine have closer economic and traditional ties to Russia. Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, has worked for months to press Ukraine back into Russia's political and economic orbit.

Russia engaged in more sabre-rattling Friday by warning that it reserves the right to intervene in eastern Ukraine in defense of ethnic Russians who it claims are under threat.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said clashes overnight Thursday in the eastern city of Donetsk showed that Ukrainian authorities had lost control of the country and could not provide basic security.

The clashes broke out, however, when a hostile pro-Russian crowd confronted pro-government supporters. At least one person died and 29 were injured.

Ukraine responded by calling the Russian statement "impressive in its cynicism."

"(The Donetsk clashes had) a direct connection to deliberate, destructive actions of certain citizens of Russia and some Russian social organizations, representatives of which are present in our country to destabilize the situation and escalate tensions," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Evgeny Perebiynis said, according to the Interfax news agency.

The U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights, Ivan Simonovic, told reporters Friday in Kiev that there was "no sign of human rights violations of such a proportion, of such widespread intensity that would require any military measures."

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Armed men, believed to be Russian servicemen, walk outside a Ukrainian military base in Perevalnoye, …

Russia has also sent thousands of troops to its long border with Ukraine, a move that U.S. officials have called an intimidation tactic cloaked as military exercises. The Russian drills announced Thursday included large artillery exercises involving 8,500 soldiers in the Rostov border region alone.

Western officials have asked Russia to start diplomatic talks with Kiev to de-escalate tensions but Russia says that government illegally drove Ukraine's pro-Russian president from power.

British Prime Minister David Cameron underlined the threat of sanctions.

"We want to see Ukrainians and the Russians talking to each other. And if they don't, then there are going to have to be consequences," Cameron told Kerry in a separate meeting Friday in London.

U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said while it was "not too late" for the Crimea referendum to be canceled, it was important to be "realistic" about the prospects.

"The fact that so far Russia has not taken any actual action to de-escalate the tensions makes this a formidably difficult task today," Hague said.

Officials and experts say the vote of Crimea's majority ethnic Russian population will certainly result in a move to break away from Ukraine. Fearful residents on the peninsula have flocked to banks this week, trying to pull out whatever money they can.

Kerry arrived in London with plans to make clear to Lavrov about the stakes that Russia faces. The U.S. wants Russia to accept something short of a full annexation of Crimea — but Kerry has not said what that might entail.

He told senators in Washington that should the Crimea vote take place and no resolution is reached, "there will be a very serious series of steps on Monday in Europe and here."

Obama has imposed limited sanctions against unidentified Russian officials thought by the U.S. to be directly involved in destabilizing Ukraine.

But Congress on Thursday put off a vote until after March 24 that would have expanded those sanctions, as well as approve $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine and International Monetary Fund revisions to help Kiev.

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Peter Leonard in Moscow and Maria Danilova in Kiev contributed.

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Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP and Cassandra Vinograd at https://twitter.com/CassVinograd

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By Chris Stephen in Tripoli, The Guardian - March 13, 2014

http://tinyurl.com/ohbcokg

The ousting of Libya’s prime minister, who fled to Europe this week, has triggered fighting between eastern and western regions that threatens to divide the country.

Ali Zeidan, a popular figure with western diplomats, was sacked by the Islamist-led congress on Tuesday after failing to prevent a North Korean tanker loading oil from a port controlled by rebels in the eastern region of Cyrenaica.

Fearing arrest following his dismissal, Zeidan made a late-night escape from Tripoli aboard a private jet, leaving behind a fractured government and a country in turmoil, fighting over its rich oil resources.

Libya has Africa’s largest oil reserves, but production has plummeted since the summer, when a self-declared federalist government was formed in Cyrenaica, which blockaded key oil terminals.

The rebels’ argument is that much of Libya’s oil is produced in the east but the revenue flows to Tripoli in the west; they have demanded a larger share of the income in return for lifting the blockade.

Oil revenue is almost the only source of income for a country that – three years after Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in the Nato-backed Arab spring revolution – is characterised by militia violence, a moribund economy and pockets of Islamist radicalism.

Ousted Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan

The day after Zeidan’s removal, the powerful Misrata militia, allied to congress, launched an offensive to retake the blockaded oil terminals, storming the base of an army special forces unit – the Zawiya Martyrs brigade – in the central city of Sirte, leaving five people dead.

Within hours, federalist militias, backed by some units from Libya’s small regular army, had set up a defence line at the Red Wadi, a natural feature that blocks the way to the oil ports.

The congress leader and de facto president, Nuri Abu Sahmain, quickly denounced the rebels as lawbreakers and set a two-week deadline for them to clear the ports or face attack by Misratan forces.

This produced an equally fiery response from the federalists. “Baqua forces are fighting alongside Zawiya Martyrs,” said spokesman Senussi El-Megrabi, using the Arabic name for Cyrenaica. “We are assembling a large force to protect the ports. If they are attacked, it will be civil war.”

The federalists are confident of success, because the congress itself is under pressure, having drawn protests from across the country for its decision to stay in office beyond its original mandate, which expired last month. Elections are not planned before the summer.

Many in the eastern capital of Benghazi are braced for clashes. “There’s tension everywhere on the streets,” said one resident, a businessman who asked not to be named. “Everyone is preparing for war. Troops are gathering at the Red Wadi.”

Outside analysts say the removal of Zeidan may have cut away the middle ground for a compromise. “You’re getting quite close to the point where eastern Libya says this is UDI [unilateral declaration of independence],” said John Hamilton, a London-based oil analyst.

In the east, rebel forces hope to have the support of the air force, three air bases having effectively mutinied and joined with a former general, Khalifa Hiftar, who last month called for congress to be removed by force.

Having shipped their first consignment of oil, the federalists said more was planned. “Another tanker will be loading from the port of Tobruk in the next few days,” said El-Megrabi.

The international response has so far been muted. Britain and the US have issued statements opposing federalist attempts to sell oil independently, but diplomats say their political leverage is limited to offering mediation between the factions.

“With control of the central government and Libya’s oil at stake, all these groups, rivalries and alliances of convenience are coming to the fore. What happens next will be violent,” said Geoff Porter of British security firm North Africa Risk Consulting.

Background story: Libya’s Prime Minister Ousted After Ship Leaves Rebel-Held Port with Illegal Oil

Anti-government protesters run from tear gas during a protest against Nicolas Maduro’s government in Caracas March 13, 2014. REUTERS-Carlos Garcia Rawlins

By Daniel Wallis, Reuters – March 13, 2014

http://tinyurl.com/nb6jezy

Venezuela’s state prosecutor said on Thursday the death toll from a month of violent protests had risen to 28, after the nation’s top court ordered opposition mayors to dismantle barricades set up by street protesters.

State prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz, speaking on the sidelines of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, also said 1,293 detainees had been released and 104 remained in custody accused of serious crimes during the anti-government demonstrations.

“We need to ensure there is no impunity and it must be fully investigated to determine whether those people held in jail are the authors of those homicides,” she said.

President Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver elected last year to succeed the late Hugo Chavez, has declared victory over a “coup” attempt and does not look in danger of being toppled.

The protesters, some of whom have vowed to stay in the streets until he quits, are demanding political change, and an end of high inflation and crime rates, as well as shortages of basic goods such as milk, flour and cooking oil in stores.

Ortega said the authorities were investigating 27 complaints against individuals from law enforcement agencies, adding that there may have been “isolated incidents” of abuse by police and National Guard troops, which would be punished.

Three fatal shootings on Wednesday in central Carabobo state were the latest fatalities from daily clashes between opponents of Maduro, his supporters, and members of the security forces.

More than 300 people have been injured in the unrest.

The protesters decry what they call brutal repression of demonstrations by security forces. Maduro says troops have been even-handed in the face of sustained public order disturbances.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, in the most strongly worded statement yet from Washington about the situation, said on Thursday Maduro was carrying out a “terror campaign.”

“We are engaged now with trying to find a way to get the Maduro government to engage with their citizens, to treat them respectfully, to end this terror campaign against his own people,” Kerry said during a Congressional hearing.

He said neighbouring countries should focus on the situation in Venezuela and “hold them accountable.”

The Venezuela Supreme Court has ordered two opposition mayors in Caracas to remove barricades and other obstacles placed across roads in their municipalities by opposition supporters.

The barriers have frequently become flashpoints for violence between those who set them up, and government supporters or frustrated neighbours who try to dismantle them.

The ruling, published by state media on Thursday, said the barricades went against Venezuelans’ right to free movement.

One of the mayors, David Smolansky, said on Twitter the ruling sought to create confrontation between his office and residents of his up-market El Hatillo constituency.

“I will never confront our neighbours,” Smolansky said. “We don’t practice repression here.”

Separately, the information minister said Maduro had ordered the detention of “snipers” who killed three people in Carabobo, as well as raids to capture alleged financiers of violent protests. The minister did not elaborate.

The government says its rivals are “fascists” who are trying to paint a picture of chaos and repression to discredit Maduro and trigger a coup or some form of foreign intervention.

Other nations around Latin American, though worried, have taken a relatively standoff approach to the crisis.

Foreign ministers from the regional Unasur group of governments issued a statement in Chile on Wednesday condemning the violence, calling for dialogue and creating a committee to try to promote talks in Venezuela.