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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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| Information | | |
Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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19Feb14
Obama Issues Pointed Warning to Ukraine Government
President Obama pointedly warned the Ukrainian military on Wednesday to stay out of the political crisis that has already ravaged the streets of Kiev and said the United States would hold the government responsible for further violence.
"We have been watching very carefully and we expect the Ukrainian government to show restraint, to not resort to violence in dealing with peaceful protesters," Mr. Obama said during a one-day visit here to meet with Mexican and Canadian counterparts. "There will be consequences if people step over the line."
He added: "And that includes making sure that the Ukrainian military does not step into what should be a set of issues that can be resolved by civilians."
The president's decision to address the Ukrainian situation without being asked reflected the growing concern by the White House that the standoff between the government of President Viktor F. Yanukovych and demonstrators in the street has increasingly spiraled out of control. Until now, Mr. Obama has largely left it to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Secretary of State John Kerry to be the administration's public spokesmen on the crisis.
Mr. Obama interrupted his opening meeting with Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto to tell reporters that "the United States condemns in the strongest terms" the violence that has claimed lives in the last two days. His reference to the military underscored American worries that troops may soon be called out of the barracks, further fueling the confrontation.
Mr. Obama said protesters should themselves refrain from violence. "But we hold the Ukrainian government primarily responsible for making sure that it is dealing with peaceful protesters in an appropriate way." Although the president did not use the word, aides separately repeated the White House position that sanctions may be imposed in response to the violence.
"We have made it clear we would consider taking action against individuals who are responsible for acts of violence within Ukraine," Benjamin Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to the president, told reporters on Air Force One during the trip here Wednesday morning. "We have a tool kit for doing that that includes sanctions."
But the White House was clearly trying to use the threat to induce action by the Ukrainian government. "Events like what we saw yesterday are clearly going to impact our decision making," Mr. Rhodes said. On the other hand, he added, if the government pulls back its forces, releases imprisoned protesters and pursues dialogue with the opposition, "that would obviously factor into our calculus as well."
The administration has threatened sanctions repeatedly in recent weeks to little if any apparent effect. Mr. Yanukovych and his government were certainly aware of the past threats when riot police officers stormed the protesters in Kiev but they evidently calculated either that sanctions were a price they were willing to pay or that any such measures were unlikely to be imposed, at least with enough teeth to cause sufficient pain to alter their equation.
[Source: By Peter Baker, The New York Times, 19Feb14]
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