CONFLICT

Putin Outlines 7-Point Plan for Ukraine Cease-Fire

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR and ANDREW ROTHSEPT. 3, 2014

President Obama arriving at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, on Wednesday.CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times

KIEV, Ukraine — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia listed seven steps on Thursday that he said were necessary for a cease-fire in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Mr. Putin said he and the president of Ukraine, Petro O. Poroshenko, had a similar understanding about what was needed, and he urged Ukraine and the pro-Russian separatists in the east to reach a settlement at talks scheduled for Friday in Belarus.

The primary conditions on Mr. Putin’s list are that the separatists halt all offensive operations and that Ukrainian troops move their artillery back out of range of all population centers in the rebel-held area.

Mr Putin also called for Ukraine to cease airstrikes; the establishment of an international monitoring mission and humanitarian aid corridors; an “all for all” prisoner exchange; and “rebuilding brigades” to repair damaged roads, bridges, power lines and other infrastructure.

His remarks came at a news conference during a state visit to Mongolia. After confirming that he had spoken with Mr. Poroshenko, Mr. Putin offhandedly mentioned that he had “sketched out” a peace plan during his flight from Moscow. An aide then handed Mr. Putin a notebook, from which he read the plan.

Mr. Poroshenko’s office retracted a statement it had made earlier in the day that said the two presidents had agreed to a “lasting cease-fire.” A spokesman said the initial statement, posted on the presidential website, went too far in describing the results of a telephone call between the two leaders.

The presidents exchanged opinions about a cease-fire, but there was no formal agreement, said the spokesman, who, in line with protocol, did not give his name.

Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s press secretary, said separately that Russia could not negotiate a cease-fire because it was not a party to the conflict, but that the opinions of the two presidents overlapped.

“Putin and Poroshenko did indeed discuss steps which could facilitate a cease-fire between the militias and the Ukrainian military,” Mr. Peskov was quoted as saying by the news agency RIA Novosti. “Russia cannot physically agree on a cease-fire, as it is not a side in the conflict.”

The West and Ukraine have accused Russia of providing arms and soldiers to support the separatists, an allegation that Mr. Putin has repeatedly denied.

Mr. Peskov said Mr. Putin and Mr. Poroshenko had “continued discussion regarding the military and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.”

They discussed “what should be done primarily to stop the bloodshed” in southeastern Ukraine, Mr. Peskov said, suggesting that the two leaders had found common ground.

“The presidents’ viewpoints on possible ways to overcome the grave and critical situation coincide to a considerable degree,” Mr. Peskov said.

Vladislav Brig, the head of the political department for the rebels’ Ministry of Defense in Donetsk, said in a telephone conversation that combat operations were continuing as usual.

“Nobody is holding negotiations about a cease-fire with the representatives of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” Mr. Brig said. “As long as there are Ukrainian soldiers on our territory, there will be no cease-fire.”

He echoed Mr. Peskov’s statements in saying that Russia could not negotiate for the rebels.

“The conversation was about measures for a cease-fire,” Mr. Brig said. “Mr. Putin did not agree with Mr. Poroshenko about any cease-fire because Russia is not involved in this conflict.”

Mr. Brig said the rebel leadership had not met to discuss the statement by Kiev.

Miroslav Rudenko, a member of the rebel Parliament, suggested that the cease-fire might be a trick, but also suggested an openness to negotiations.

“If the Ukrainian side will hold to their promises to cease fire, then we are prepared for a political side of the settlement,” he told the Russian news agency Interfax.

President Obama, on a visit to Estonia on Thursday, suggested that the real test would be whether Moscow was willing to rein in the separatists and stop its military support for them.

“If, in fact, Russia is prepared to stop financing, arming, training, in many cases joining with Russian troops’ activities in Ukraine and is serious about a political settlement, that is something we all hope for,” Mr. Obama said at a televised news conference in Tallinn, the Estonian capital.

“We haven’t seen a lot of follow-up on so-called announced cease-fires,” Mr. Obama said after meeting with President Toomas Hendrik Ilves of Estonia.

Mr. Obama’s comments came as he began a day of private meetings with Baltic leaders and of public statements meant to reassure fretful allies — particularly those bordering Russia — that the United States and Europe were serious about defending them from a newly aggressive neighbor.

“There’s an opportunity here — let’s see if there’s follow-up,” Mr. Obama said. “No realistic political settlement can be achieved if effectively Russia says we are going to continue to send troops and arms and advisers.”

Mr. Ilves said the Ukraine conflict and its wider impact on European security was “the question on everyone’s mind.”

“This is Russian aggression,” Mr. Ilves said of Moscow’s actions in eastern Ukraine. “Russia must admit that it is a party to the conflict and take genuine steps that will lead to a de-escalation of the conflict.”

Mr. Obama’s stop in Estonia came on the eve of a NATO summit meeting in Wales where members are expected to endorse a rapid-reaction force capable of deploying quickly to Eastern Europe, their strongest response yet to the situation in Ukraine. Over the weekend, Ukraine and NATO accused Russia of sending troops and armor over the border. European Union leaders then discussed a new round of sanctions against Russia, the fourth, that could be enacted within a week.

Russia has been escalating pressure on Ukraine, demanding that it grant some measure of autonomy to the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, where groups of armed militants have been demanding independence.

Until now, the administration in Kiev, the capital, has been reluctant to engage in such talks, arguing that the separatists are a Russian proxy force who do not represent the feelings of most of the people in the east.

But in recent days, the Ukrainian military has lost ground in the east. Ukraine has said the reverses were a result of the direct intervention of the Russian military. Russia denies sending men and arms across the border.

A shaky cease-fire reached in June between the government and the separatists collapsed after 10 days. Mr. Putin and Mr. Poroshenko met in Minsk, Belarus, last week, but no results were announced from that meeting, and within days the separatists opened a new front along the coast of Ukraine.

2) Because it talks about russia and ukraine coming together to create a cease fire, and they are two opposing forces that fight each other.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/world/europe/ukraine-russia.html?ref=world&_r=0

IMPACT

After Beheading of Steven Sotloff, Obama Pledges to Punish ISIS

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVISSEPT. 3, 2014

TALLINN, Estonia — President Obama vowed on Wednesday to punish the Sunni militants whose videotaped beheadings of two American journalists he said had “repulsed” the world, saying the United States would lead a regional and international coalition to beat back the terrorists.

“Our objective is clear, and that is: degrade and destroy ISIL so that it’s no longer a threat, not just to Iraq but also to the region and to the United States,” Mr. Obama said, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. He was speaking at a news conference here on the eve of a NATO summit meeting in Wales, as pressure built for him to articulate a broader military strategy to take on the ISIS militants.

“It’s not only that we’re going to be bringing to justice those who perpetrated this terrible crime against these two fine young men,” the president said. “The United States will continue to lead a regional and international effort against the kind of barbaric and ultimately empty vision” the group represents.

Steven J. Sotloff, in the black helmet, speaking with rebels near Misurata, Libya, in 2011.Getty Images

Mr. Obama’s strongly worded statement came after he drew criticism from allies and foes last week, when he said that he had not yet developed a strategy for confronting ISIS in Syria. American airstrikes in Iraq, the president said on Wednesday, had “borne fruit” by “blunting the momentum” of the militants in that country and averting the humanitarian disasters it had threatened to spark.

He spoke just hours after the White House said intelligence agencies had analyzed a video showing the beheading by an ISIS fighter of American Steven J. Sotloff, a 31-year-old freelance journalist, and considered it authentic.

“Whatever these murderers think they will achieve by killing innocent Americans like Steven, they have already failed,” Mr. Obama said in his first comments on Mr. Sotloff’s killing since the video was released.

“We will not be intimidated,” the president said. “Their horrific acts only unite us as a country and stiffen our resolve to take the fight against these terrorists.”

The video marks the second time in two weeks that the militant group released a graphic depiction of the beheading of an American, intensifying pressure on the president to order military strikes on the group in its sanctuary in Syria.

Mr. Obama said he was not yet ready to order such action, saying he wanted to be sure that the mission would be effective and that allies at home and abroad supported it.

“It is very important from my perspective that when we send our pilots in to do a job, that we know that this is a mission that’s going to work, we’re very clear what our objectives are, what our targets are, we’ve made the case to Congress and we’ve made the case to the American people, and we have allies behind us,” Mr. Obama said, “so that it’s not just a one-off.”

Pressed on whether he was talking about the elimination of ISIS, Mr. Obama suggested he was seeking instead to limit the group’s reach.

The president said his goal was to ensure that ISIS “is not an ongoing threat to the region,” and that the group “is degraded to the point where it is no longer the kind of factor that we’ve seen it being over the last few months.”

Mr. Obama said that if the United States were to be joined by the international community, “we can continue to shrink ISIL’s sphere of influence, its effectiveness, its financing, its military capabilities to the point where it is a manageable problem.”

In the latest video, Mr. Sotloff is shown kneeling in the same fashion as another American journalist who was recently beheaded, James Foley, with a masked figure standing above and wielding a knife. Mr. Sotloff addresses the camera and describes himself as “paying the price” for Mr. Obama’s decision to strike the group in northern Iraq.

The president was briefed on the video Tuesday before his departure for Estonia.

His remarks, which were made at a joint news conference with President Toomas Hendrik Ilves of Estonia, came at the start of a three-day visit to Europe that was choreographed to project a strong response by Mr. Obama and European allies to Russia’s increasingly bellicose moves in eastern Ukraine. But with the situation there changing rapidly and the surfacing of the second ISIS video, the trip is instead serving to showcase the vexing array of pressures weighing on the president to move more decisively on crises around the globe.

Mr. Obama arrived in Estonia on Wednesday for a day of private meetings with Baltic leaders and public statements meant to reassure allies – particularly those bordering Russia – that the United States and Europe are serious about defending them from their newly aggressive neighbor.

He was scheduled to travel to Wales later in the day for a NATO summit meeting, at which members are expected to endorse a rapid-reaction forcecapable of deploying quickly to Eastern Europe, their strongest response yet to Russia’s stealth military intervention in Ukraine.

Confronting ISIS is not on the formal agenda for the NATO meeting, but it is very much an issue expected to be addressed on the sidelines, where Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will be working to enlist help from allies in developing a strategy to counter the militant group.

2) Because this has a big impact on the United States which is this newspapers audience. This is an issue that many americans are passionate about, has a great impact on us and the world if we end up retaliating.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/world/middleeast/steven-sotloff-isis-execution.html?ref=world

PROMINENCE

Ebola Help for Sierra Leone Is Nearby, but Delayed on the Docks

By ADAM NOSSITEROCT. 5, 2014

Chernoh Alpha Bah in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Friday. Medical supplies that Mr. Bah shipped to Sierra Leone to help fight Ebola have sat in a shipping container for almost two months. Samuel Aranda for The New York Times

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — It has been sitting idly on the docks for nearly two months: a shipping container packed with protective gowns, gloves, stretchers, mattresses and other medical supplies needed to help fight Sierra Leone’s exploding Ebola epidemic.

There are 100 bags and boxes of hospital linens, 100 cases of protective suits, 80 cases of face masks and other items — in all, more than $140,000 worth of medical equipment locked inside a dented container at the port since Aug. 9.

Hundreds of people have died of Ebola in Sierra Leone since then, and health workers have endured grave shortages of lifesaving supplies, putting them at even greater risk in a country reeling from the virus.

“We are still just hoping (!!!) — which sounds like BEGGING — that this container should be cleared,” one government official wrote in a frantic email to his superiors, weeks after the container arrived.

In many ways, the delay reflects what some in the growing ranks of international officials pouring into this nation to fight Ebola describe as a chaotic, disorganized government response to the epidemic.

Chernoh Alpha Bah in Freetown. Many health care workers in Sierra Leone have died of Ebola. Samuel Aranda for The New York Times

“It’s a mess,” said one foreign official working alongside the Sierra Leone government agency set up to deal with the crisis. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to maintain vital relations with the government, said that nobody appeared to be in charge at the agency, known as the “emergency operations center,” and that different factions made decisions independently.

“It’s the only body responsible,” the official said. “What is it doing?”

In the case of the shipping container, the desperately needed supplies seem to have been caught, at least in part, in a trap that is common the world over: politics, money and power.

The supplies were donated by individuals and institutions in the United States, according to Chernoh Alpha Bah, who organized the shipment. But Mr. Bah wears another hat, as well. He is an opposition politician from President Ernest Bai Koroma’s hometown, Makeni — a place that clearly showed the government’s inability to contain Ebola.

A recent surge of cases there quickly overwhelmed health workers, with protective gear so lacking that some nurses have worked around the deadly virus in their street clothes.

More than 80 health care workers in Sierra Leone have died in the outbreak, and even in the capital, Freetown, some burial crews wear protective gowns with gaping holes in them, a clear indication of the urgent need for more supplies.

The government official who pleaded for the shipment to come in said that the political tensions may have contributed to the delay, to prevent the opposition from trumpeting the donations.

Mr. Bah said he thought the equipment would be welcomed by the struggling authorities, and he said he expected the shipping fee of $6,500 would be a small detail for Sierra Leone. According to the official, the government has already received well over $40 million in cash from international donors to fight Ebola.

The shipping company, as a good-will gesture in a moment of crisis, had agreed to send the goods without being paid first, Mr. Bah said. But no more. Three other containers of similar value await shipment from the United States, he said, halted by the government’s long refusal to pay.

“We will appreciate if the payment is made quickly so that the medical supplies will be sent directly to the affected or targeted areas,” Mr. Bah wrote to the government on Aug. 16.

Instead, top government officials argued over the fee, said that the proper procedures had not been followed, and finally brushed aside the official urging that the supplies be let in, saying they wanted to hear nothing more about it.

“They are blaming us for shipping in without authorization,” Mr. Bah said. “It appears all they are interested in is cash donations. And all we have are supplies.”

At one point, a senior official close to the president, Sylvia Olayinka Blyden, acknowledged in an email that the items listed in Mr. Bah’s container were “very impressive.” But she said “future shipments” should follow procedure. That was on Sept. 1, and she has since left her post. The goods are still inside the container on the dock here.

“He should have contacted the ministry and discussed it with the ministry,” Yayah A. Conteh, an official at the health ministry, said of Mr. Bah, adding that the medical supplies would be cleared “very soon.”

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In times of crisis, when needs are great and officials are overburdened, trickles of uncoordinated donations can be a distraction, some aid workers say, requiring a lot of attention without solving the biggest problems.

But some Sierra Leoneans say that the government’s resistance has discouraged other potential donors in the diaspora.

Ibrahim Kamara, a Sierra Leonean in Canada who has put together what he says is a $55,000 container of medical supplies, said that he was now encountering the same problems with the government — an unwillingness to pay the $5,000 shipping fee.

“There is no positive response, no feedback, no anything,” Mr. Kamara said. “It’s been over a month now.”

The emergency operations center was established to manage the urgent but confusing patchwork of agencies and international aid groups trying to battle the virus. The health ministry itself has been rocked by corruption and mismanagement scandals in recent years, further weakening efforts in a country that, even before the Ebola epidemic, suffered from some of the world’s worst health statistics after a brutal 10-year civil war.

Twenty-nine of the country’s top health officials were indicted last year in connection with the misappropriation of a half-million dollars in vaccination funds. The leaders were all acquitted. A free health care program set up by foreign donors has been damaged by corruption problems, with nurses illegally selling drugs and doctors charging for services. In 2010, a former health minister was convicted on corruption charges. This year, the health minister was pushed aside during the Ebola crisis amid questions over her competence.

At a recent meeting at the emergency operations center, local politicians discussed at length how they might be able to use the government’s recentthree-day national lockdown — in which volunteers went door-to-door to educate people about Ebola — for their own political benefit.

Meanwhile, reported cases of Ebola are doubling every 30 to 40 days, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.More than 620 deaths have been recorded, with the real number almost certainly much higher.

The government official who pleaded for the supplies to be let in argued that the epidemic, “like the war we experienced between 1991 and 2002,” had exposed the extent of government corruption.

The more urgent the pleas, the official said, the more it “elicited only disdain from some people in authority.”