Iranian mother who spared her son's killer: 'Vengeance has left my heart'

Interview Samereh Alinejad tells the Guardian she had no intention of sparing her son's killer, Balal, until the moment she asked for the noose to be removed from his neck

The Guardian, Saeed Kamali Dehghan,  Friday 25 April 2014

Samereh Alinejad, right, slapping blindfolded Balal, who was convicted
of murdering her son Abdollah. Photograph: Arash Khamoushi/AP

The idea she might pardon her son's killer first came to Samereh Alinejad in a dream. It was a message she didn't want to hear.

Abdollah Hosseinzadeh was stabbed and killed in a street brawl in the autumn of 2007 when he was only 18. He had known his killer, Balal. The two, barely out of their teens at the time, had played football together. Abdollah was the second son Alinejad had lost, her youngest died as a boy in a motorbike accident when he was 11. Furious in her grief, she was determined Balal would hang.

But as Balal's execution date drew nearer, Abdollah appeared to his mother in a series of vivid dreams.

"Ten days before the execution was due, I saw my son in a dream asking me not to take revenge, but I couldn't convince myself to forgive," she told the Guardian. "Two nights before that day, I saw him in the dream once again, but this time he refused to speak to me."

Speaking by phone from Iran's northern Mazandaran province, on the Caspian Sea, Alinejad said she had no intention of sparing Balal's life until the moment she asked for the noose to be removed from his neck. Her last-minute pardon was a remarkable act of humanity that moved hearts across Iran – and the world – but it took Alinejad by surprise as much as it did Balal, his relatives and her own family.

A stream of relatives, her brother and her mother, flowed through her house the night before the execution. Painfully aware of the grief she had carried in the seven years since her son was killed, none of them attempted to change her mind. "I stood very firm in my belief that I want him punished, so they didn't expect me to forgive."

As Abdollah's legal guardian, Alinejad's husband Abdolghani had the power under Iranian law to overturn the death penalty, but he had relinquished that responsibility to his wife.

"We couldn't sleep that night, we were all awake until morning. Until the last minute, I didn't want to forgive. I had told my husband just two days before that I can't forgive this man, but maybe there would be a possibility, but I couldn't persuade myself to forgive." Alinejad had been assured: "My husband said, look to God and let's see what happens."

In the early hours of last Tuesday, Alinejad was outside the gates of Nour prison, among the crowd gathered for Balal's execution.

"You have the final say, my husband had said," she recalled. "He said you've suffered too much, we'll do as you say."

After recitation from the Qur'an was read, prison guards had hooked a rope around Balal's neck as he stood on a chair blindfolded, his hands tied behind his back. Iran's Islamic penal code allows the victim's heir – "walli-ye-dam" – to personally execute the condemned man as Qisas (retribution) – in this case by pushing away the chair he was standing on.

Seconds away from what could have been his final breath, Balal pleaded for his life and called out for mercy. "Please forgive," he shouted, "if only for my mum and dad," Alinejad recalled. "I was angry, I shouted back how can I forgive, did you show mercy to my son's mum and dad?"

Others in the crowd watching the scene in anguish also called out for the family to spare Balal's life. "Amoo Ghani (uncle Ghani), forgive," they shouted, calling the victim's father by his first name.

Balal's fate then took an unexpected turn. Alinejad clambered up on a stool and rather than pushing away his chair, slapped him across the face.

"After that, I felt as if rage vanished within my heart. I felt as if the blood in my veins began to flow again," she said. "I burst into tears and I called my husband and asked him to come up and remove the noose." Within seconds, as Abdolghani unhooked the rope from Balal's neck, he was declared pardoned.

Balal's mother Kobra, sobbing, reached across the fence separating the crowd from the execution site, and embraced Alinejad before reaching to kiss her feet – a gesture of respect and gratitude. "I didn't allow her to do that, I took her arm and made her stand up … she was just a mother like me, after all."

Arash Khamoushi, a photographer for Iranian news agency Isna, captured the extraordinary scene in a series of pictures that flooded internet sites, newspapers and television sets across the world. Among the most poignant images is of the mothers, facing each other for the first time, holding one another in their arms.

"She was extremely happy, it was as if someone had given her wings to fly," Alinejad said. Hours ulater, after sparing one woman's child, she went to visit her own son's grave.

Abdollah was brought up in a religious family. Alinejad is a housewife, Abdolghani is a retired labourer who works as football coach in the local club where both Abdollah and Balal used to play. Having lost both their sons, the couple now have only their daughter. Balal remains in jail. A victim's family can only save a killer's life, they can't lift a jail sentence, which is at the discretion of the judiciary in Iran, which has the worst record for executions worldwide after China.

Alinejad has not spoken to Balal's family other than when they met at Nour prison. "I didn't utter a single word to them in all these years, nor complain directly about why their son killed mine," she said. "But they're in touch with our relatives.

"Balal was naive. He didn't want to kill, it wasn't in his nature, he was angry in seconds and had a knife in his hand."

Finding herself suddenly a figure of inspiration for people across the world, Alinejad has one lesson she hopes her tragedy will help others to learn: "For young people not to carry knives when they're going out. When they kill a person, they don't just kill that person, mums and dads die too as a result."

She is pleased, she said, so many people were happy with her decision: "I'm glad when people now call me their mum."

One week after pardoning Balal, Alinejad has found a peace lost since her son's death. "Losing a child is like losing a part of your body. All these years, I felt like a moving dead body," she said. "But now, I feel very calm, I feel I'm at peace. I feel that vengeance has left my heart."

Balal's mother, left and Hosseinzadeh's mother embrace after

the execution was halted. Photograph: Arash Khamooshi/Isna

Related Article:

Iranian killer's execution halted at last minute by victim's parents

Marshall Islands sues nine nuclear powers over failure to disarm

Pacific nation that was site of 67 nuclear tests between 1946 and 1958 accuses states of 'flagrant denial of human justice'

theguardian.com, Julian Borger, diplomatic editor,  Thursday 24 April 2014, 11.11

Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, where a 15-megaton device equivalent to a thousand
Hiroshima blasts, detonated in 1954. Photograph: US Air Force - digital version

The Marshall Islands is suing the nine countries with nuclear weapons at the international court of justice at The Hague, arguing they have violated their legal obligation to disarm.

In the unprecedented legal action, comprising nine separate cases brought before the ICJ on Thursday, the Republic of the Marshall Islands accuses the nuclear weapons states of a "flagrant denial of human justice". It argues it is justified in taking the action because of the harm it suffered as a result of the nuclear arms race.

The Pacific chain of islands, including Bikini Atoll and Enewetak, was the site of 67 nuclear tests from 1946 to 1958, including the "Bravo shot", a 15-megaton device equivalent to a thousand Hiroshima blasts, detonated in 1954. The Marshallese islanders say they have been suffering serious health and environmental effects ever since.

The island republic is suing the five "established" nuclear weapons states recognised in the 1968 nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) – the US, Russia (which inherited the Soviet arsenal), China, France and the UK – as well as the three countries outside the NPT who have declared nuclear arsenals – India, Pakistan and North Korea, and the one undeclared nuclear weapons state, Israel.

The NPT, which came into force in 1970 is essentially a compact between the non-weapon states, who pledged to not to acquire nuclear weapons, and the weapons states, who in return undertook to disarm under article VI of the treaty.

Although the size of the arsenals are sharply down from the height of the cold war, the Marshall Islands' legal case notes there remain more than 17,000 warheads in existence, 16,000 of them owned by Russia and the US – enough to destroy all life on the planet.

"The long delay in fulfilling the obligations enshrined in article VI of the NPT constitutes a flagrant denial of human justice," the court documents say.

The Marshall Islands case draws attention to the fact that the weapons states are currently in the process of modernising their nuclear weapons, which it portrays as a clear violation of the NPT.

The case against Britain, which has an estimated total inventory of 225 warheads and is in the process of replacing its submarine-launched Trident arsenal, states that: "The UK has not pursued in good faith negotiations to cease the nuclear arms race at an early date through comprehensive nuclear disarmament or other measures, and instead is taking actions to improve its nuclear weapons system and to maintain it for the indefinite future."

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's general secretary, Kate Hudson, said: "The nuclear-armed states continue to peddle the myth that they are committed to multilateral disarmament initiatives, while squandering billions to modernise their nuclear arsenals. The UK government's plans to replace Trident make a mockery of its professed belief in multilateral frameworks – and now in addition to huge public opposition in the UK, it will also face an international legal challenge to expose its hypocrisy."

A huge dome is shown in 1980 covering a crater left by one of the

43 nuclear blasts on Runit Island, in the Marshall Islands, the fallout

 from which is expected to last 25,000 years (US Defence Nuclear Agency/

AFP/File)

Related Articles:

Islanders afraid to go home 60 years after Bikini Atoll H-bomb

Beijing attaches great importance to global nuclear governance: official
Risk of nuclear accidents is rising, says report on near-misses

"Fast-Tracking" - Feb 8, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Reference to Fukushima / H-bomb nuclear pollution and a warning about nuclear > 20 Min)

Brazil passes online privacy law as Web governance conference starts in Sao Paulo

Deutsche Welle, 23 April 2014

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has ratified a bill guaranteeing Internet privacy and access to the Web. It comes as Sao Paulo hosts a global conference on Internet governance.

The legislation, which was passed by parliament late on Tuesday, puts limits on the metadata that can be collated from Internet users in Brazil. It also makes Internet service providers not liable for content published by their users and requires them to comply with court orders to remove offensive material.

Rousseff, who was in Sao Paulo for the opening of the NetMundial global conference on Internet governance, has been at the forefront of efforts to formally recognize Internet freedom and privacy.

Rousseff has been pushing for
measures on Internet governance

Last year, when it was revealed that she had been under surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA), Rousseff cancelled a state visit to the US and started to champion Internet freedom and privacy.

Speaking at the opening of NetMundial, she said that "the Internet we want will only be possible in a scenario of respect for human rights, in particular the right to privacy and freedom of expression."

Despite her differences with the US, Rousseff praised Washington for its decision to hand over the management of ICANN and IANA, which manage the Internet's global domain name system, next September.

"I salute the US government's recently announced plan to replace its links to IANA and ICANN with a global management of those institutions," she said on Wednesday.

During the two-day conference, government officials, industry executives and academics from around the world are expected to agree on a set of principles to enhance online privacy that does not overly restrict the Internet's self-regulated nature.

They will also debate how to govern the Internet after the US hands over the reins at ICANN. The meeting's resolutions are non-binding, but Brazil hopes they can serve as the foundation for further discussions on Internet governance.

The main challenge is to find common ground between different governments and corporate Internet giants like Facebook and Google, who are opposed to more regulation.

ng/rc (AP, Reuters)

Whistleblowers need better protection: helpline

DutchNews.nl, Tuesday 22 April 2014

Martin van Pernis, Chairman, Committee

 Whistleblowers advice center, speaking

at the launch of the advice center

Whistleblowers in 2012 (NRC/ANP)

A special helpline for whistleblowers has helped 61 people go public since it was founded in October 2012 and has dealt with 435 requests for advice, according to the Adviespunt Klokkenluiders’s first annual report.

Most whistleblowers – 30% - were concerned about problems in the health service, followed by local government (10%) and manufacturing (10%). Four out of 10 cases involved the semi-public sector. Fraud or theft were the most common complaints.

The report also shows that three out of four whistleblowers had problems at work after going public with their fears. These ranged from bullying to redundancy.

The helpline says whistleblowers should be given better protection in law. This is already the case for public sector workers but not those in the private sector.

Related Articles:

Health authority again under fire: hid bad hospital finance news

Health regulator failed to secure IT system, ignored whistleblower

Whistleblowing heart doctor who aired hospital safety fears wins tribunal case

Dutch SP introduces bill to protect whistleblowers

Brussels criticises 'revolving door' between Dutch politics and industry

US whistleblower laws offer no protection

'Most of Europe has no whistleblower protection'

UN human rights chief says whistleblowers need protection

Hamas, Fatah reach deal on unity government, Israel reacts sharply

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that he has to choose between peace with Israel or Hamas. It comes after Hamas and Fatah agreed to a unity government.

Deutsche Welle, 23 April 2014

Militant group Hamas and the Fatah-led Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) have agreed to form a technocrat unity government, according to a joint statement by the two groups.

"An agreement has been reached on the formation within five weeks of an independent government headed by president Mahmud Abbas," the statement said.

The announcement came after Fatah and Hamas started their first reconciliation talks since 2007 when Hamas - an opponent to US-led peace talks with Israel - was voted into power in Gaza.

The agreement could pave the way for elections and a national strategy towards Israel. It could give Abbas some degree of sovereignty in Gaza but also help Hamas, which is hemmed in by an Israeli-Egyptian blockade, to become less isolated.

It is unclear, however, whether the unity government will be established, as Hamas and Fatah have failed to implement a 2011 Egyptian-brokered unity deal aimed at ending the political divide between Gaza and the Palestinian Authority-ruled West Bank.

Sharp rebuke from Israel

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu reacted sharply to the news, as the apparent unity deal coincides with meetings between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators to try to extend the US-sponsored peace talks beyond an April 29 deadline.

"Does he (Abbas) want peace with Hamas or peace with Israel?," Netanyahu said to reporters on Wednesday.

"You can have one but not the other. I hope he chooses peace. So far he hasn't done so," he said.

Israel's Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said in a statement that Abbas, who heads the Palestinian Authority that exercises limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, "cannot make peace both with Israel and Hamas, a terrorist organization that calls for Israel's destruction".

Abbas's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdeineh, however, said Palestinian unity was an internal matter.

"Abbas chooses peace and the unity of the Palestinian people," Abu Rdeineh said. "The choice of unifying the Palestinian people enforces peace, and there is no contradiction whatsoever between reconciliation and negotiations."

US-led peace talks stalled

The US-led peace talks reached a stalemate when Israel refused to release a fourth and final group of Palestinian prisoners, in line with an earlier agreement. Since then, both sides have made demands the other deems unacceptable.

Over the weekend, Palestinian negotiators warned they may hand responsibility for governing the occupied territories back to Israel and dismantle he Palestinian Authority, if the Jewish state fails to release the prisoners and freeze settlement building.

But Israel says the demands are unacceptable. "He who makes such conditions does not want peace," an Israeli official told the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.

ng/rc (Reuters, AFP, dpa)

US urges Russia to take 'concrete steps' over Ukraine

Deutsche Welle, 21 April 2014

The US has called on Russia to take "concrete steps" to implement the terms of a deal aimed at defusing unrest in Ukraine. It has said Kyiv has already done its bit to honor the deal, although Moscow disagrees.

The State Department said US Secretary of State John Kerry held a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov where he urged him to meet Ukraine halfway on the deal.

"The secretary urged Russia to take concrete steps to help implement the Geneva agreement, including publicly calling on separatists to vacate illegal buildings and checkpoints, accept amnesty and address their grievances politically," department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a news briefing.

The Geneva deal, agreed on by the US, EU, Russia and Ukraine, calls on armed groups in eastern Ukraine to surrender their weapons and end their occupation of government buildings in dozens of cities. It said that should be carried out under the surveillance of envoys from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)

However, pro-Russian separatists have rejected the deal and refused to budge until the interim government in Kyiv - which ousted the Kremlin-allied President Viktor Yanukovych - steps aside.

Kerry said Russia must follow in the footsteps of Ukraine and appoint a senior diplomat to work with the OSCE mission "to make absolutely clear to the separatists that Russia supports the agreement and wants de-escalation."

The US secretary of state told Lavrov the Ukrainian government had also agreed a broad amnesty bill for separatists who give up buildings and weapons and had suspended its "anti-terrorist operation" against activists for the Easter period.

"He asked that Russia now demonstrate an equal level of commitment to the Geneva agreement in both its rhetoric and its actions," Psaki said.

Russia has publically disputed this version of events.

Trading blame

In a news conference on Monday Lavrov accused Ukraine of being the party that had breached the terms of the Geneva deal.

Lavrov said that "steps are being taken - above all by those who seized power in Kyiv - not only that do not fulfill, but that crudely violate the Geneva agreement."

He also criticized Ukraine's interim government for not clearing what he called "illegal" protesters from Maidan Square in Kyiv. Maidan was the hub of pro-Western protests earlier this year which pushed Yanukovych from power.

Lavrov also alluded to claims that Ukraine's ultra-right wing faction, the Right Sector,was behind a deadly shootout near the eastern city of Slovyansk on Sunday, which left at least three people dead.

He told reporters the attack showed that Kyiv did not want to control who he labeled "extremists."

"The authorities are doing nothing, not even lifting a finger, to address the causes behind this deep internal crisis in Ukraine," he said.

Ukraine has blamed the shooting on pro-Russian separatists.

Biden in Kyiv

Kerry's comments came hours after US Vice President Joe Biden landed in Kyiv.

He is scheduled to hold talks with Ukraine's acting prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, among others.

Biden is also expected to announce a package of technical assistance for Ukraine while upholding the threat of further US sanctions against Russia.

"He will call for urgent implementation of the agreement reached in Geneva last week while also making clear ... that there will be mounting costs for Russia if they choose a destabilizing rather than constructive course in the days ahead," a senior administration official told reporters.

The US and EU have both imposed sanctions on a number of Russian and Ukrainian individuals accused of stoking the crisis, although they are yet to directly target Moscow's economy.

ccp/kms (AFP, Reuters)

Seven hours of negotations in Geneva ended in agreement on a
series of 'concrete steps'. Photograph: Eric Bridiers/EPA

Related Article:

Ukraine crisis: Geneva talks produce agreement on defusing conflict

Pope Francis prays for abandoned in Good Friday service

BBC News, 18 April 2014

Pope Francis had led the Way of the Cross procession and urged
the crowd to "remember all the abandoned people

Pope Francis

• Profile :Pope Francis
• Pope Francis strikes a new tone
• Pope's first year - in 90 secs Watch
• The 'fallible' Pope

Pope Francis has led Easter's Way of the Cross procession in Rome, with prayers for the poor and the abandoned.

The solemn ceremony marks Christians' commemoration of Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday. Tens of thousands of people lined the route near the 2,000-year-old Colosseum.

The Pope heard the Vatican's official preacher deliver a sermon denouncing greed and the love of money.

The procession is part of the Church's Easter triduum festival.

Pope Francis urged the crowd to "remember all the abandoned people" and spoke of the "monstrosity of man" when he lets evil guide him.

"Evil won't have the last word, but love, mercy and pardon will" he added at the end of the Way of the Cross.

The sermon, by Father Raniero Cantalamessa, spoke of the injustice of human trafficking and suffering caused by environmental damage.

"Money is behind every evil in our society" the preacher declared.

Meditations

The procession route included 14 stages, known as Stations of the Cross, at which specially written meditations were recited.

One meditation touched on the plight of child soldiers, while another recalled the deaths of migrants trying to reach more prosperous countries.

The Way of the Cross procession took place in front of the Colosseum in Rome

Part of the ceremony involved the Pope praying on the floor in St Peter's Basilica

Thousands of people lined the route in central Rome holding candles

Other meditations criticised overcrowding in prisons and the treatment of the elderly.

Immigrants, prisoners, former drug addicts and elderly people were among those who helped carry a large cross between the different stations.

Pope Francis has made caring for the poor a central theme of his pontificate so far, says the BBC's David Willey in Rome.

Break with tradition

On Saturday night, Pope Francis will celebrate an Easter vigil Mass in St Peter's Basilica.

Easter services will then conclude on Sunday with a Mass celebrating Jesus's resurrection.

The Pope will deliver his twice-yearly "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message.

On Thursday, the Pope washed the feet of 12 disabled people in Rome as part of the Maundy Thursday service commemorating Christ's Last Supper.

He broke with tradition by washing the feet of several women and a Muslim man in a ceremony traditionally restricted to men only.

Related Articles:

Historic mass in Turkish-held north Cyprus 'like a miracle'

The one day when Christians and atheists sing from the same hymn sheet

UN security council urged to target North Korean officials over atrocities

Inquiry head Michael Kirby says leaders should be hit with sanctions and referred to international criminal court

theguardian.com, AFP, Friday 18 April 2014

Michael Kirby and other commission members at a media conference
after the meeting. Photograph: Cia Pak/Demotix/Corbis

The United Nations security council should slap targeted sanctions on North Korean officials responsible for grave human rights abuses and refer them to the international criminal court (ICC), the head of a special UN inquiry said on Thursday.

The retired Australian judge Michael Kirby told an informal meeting of the security council convened by Australia, France and the United States he wanted leading members of the reclusive regime hauled before the ICC for prosecution.

"More monitoring and engagement alone cannot suffice in the face of crimes that shock the conscience of humanity," Kirby said. "Perpetrators must be held accountable, it is necessary to deter further crimes."

North Korea did not send a representative and the meeting was snubbed by China, Pyongyang's sole major ally, and Russia.

"A new generation of senior officials now surround the supreme leader Kim Jong-un," Kirby said.

"They must be made to understand that they will themselves face personal accountability if they join in the commission of crimes against humanity or fail to prevent them where they could.

"The commission of inquiry therefore recommends to the security council the adoption of targeted sanctions against those individuals most responsible for crimes against humanity."

Kirby said most countries present supported the proposal to refer North Koreans to the ICC, but UN diplomats said any move was likely to face fierce opposition from China, the North's economic lifeline.

Last month the UN's top rights body also called on the security council to act against officials responsible for a litany of crimes against humanity in North Korea.

Kirby's commission of inquiry on North Korea released a hard-hitting report in February documenting a range of gross human rights abuses, including extermination, enslavement and sexual violence.

North Korea refused to co-operate with the investigation and said the evidence was "fabricated" by "forces hostile" to the country.

After Thursday's meeting, the US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, praised council members for joining other countries for the first time to discuss the "tragic human rights situation in North Korea".

"We heard directly from the authors of a thorough, objective and credible UN report, and from victims of North Korean atrocities themselves," she added.

"These first-hand accounts –horrific stories of torture, rape, forced abortions and forced infanticide, extermination and murder –paint a chilling picture of the regime's systematic and remorseless repression of its citizens."

Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth echoed Power's sentiments.

"For the first time in its history, the security council has been confronted with the abhorrent crimes committed by the North Korean government against its people," he said.

"Given this extraordinarily severe repression, it would be unconscionable for the council to continue limiting its work on North Korea to the nuclear issue.

"The ICC was created to stand with the victims of such atrocities. The most appropriate response to the Kirby report is for the council to refer them to the ICC."

Related Article:

Ugandan President Praises North Korea Security Training

Ukraine crisis: Geneva talks produce agreement on defusing conflict

US, Russia, Ukraine and EU agree measures including end of violence, disarming of illegal groups and amnesty for protesters

The Guardian, Julian Borger in Geneva and Alec Luhn in Donetsk, Thursday 17 April 2014

Seven hours of negotations in Geneva ended in agreement on a
series of 'concrete steps'. Photograph: Eric Bridiers/EPA

The US, Russia, Ukraine and the European Union have reached agreement on a series of immediate steps aimed at pulling eastern Ukraine back from the brink of war.

The deal, clinched after a dramatic extended meeting in Geneva, calls for the disarming of all illegal groups. In the next few days they would have to vacate all the government buildings and public spaces they have occupied over the course of the crisis.

In return, the protesters in eastern Ukraine would be offered amnesty for all but capital crimes and the government in Kiev would immediately start a process of public consultation aimed at devolving constitutional powers to the provinces.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) will be given the job not only of making sure the agreement will be put into practice but of helping to implement it. The US, Russia and European countries would provide monitors to beef up the OSCE's manpower, which would be given access across Ukraine. Speaking after the deal was agreed, the US secretary of state, John Kerry, made it clear that the US would hold Russia accountable for the compliance of the pro-Russian protesters in eastern Ukraine.

"Responsibility will lie with those who have organised their presence, provided them with the weapons, put the uniforms on them, supported them, and have been engaged in the process of guiding them over the course of this operation," Kerry said, adding that the US had "made very clear that Russia has a huge impact on all those forces. And we have made clear what the evidence is."

A planned escalation of US sanctions on Russia would be suspended pending Russian compliance "over the weekend".

The Geneva meeting, which brought together Kerry, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Deshchytsia and the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, began with low expectations as clashes across eastern Ukraine between government forces and armed protesters were escalating. At least one demonstrator was killed when pro-Russian protesters tried to storm a military base in the town of Mariupol. It was expected that the talks would only last a couple of hours, and a room was prepared for Lavrov to talk to the press at midday, raising concerns he might walk out of the negotiations.

In the end, however, intense talks went on for seven hours, leading to the agreement, intended "to de-escalate tensions and restore security for all citizens".

The deal has five main points:

• All sides refrain from violence, and reject expressions "of extremism, racism and religious intolerance, including antisemitism".

• All illegal armed groups must be disarmed; all illegally seized buildings must be returned; all illegally occupied streets and other public places in Ukrainian cities and towns must be vacated.

• Amnesty will be granted to protesters and to those who have left buildings and other public places and surrendered weapons, with the exception of those found guilty of capital crimes.

• The OSCE would play a leading role in helping the authorities implement the agreement.

• Constitutional reform would be inclusive, transparent and accountable.

The agreement does not address the build-up of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, nor the beefing up of the Nato presence on Russia's western border, announced on Wednesday by the alliance's secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Kerry said that Russia had withdrawn one battalion from the border region and had made clear it would make further, bigger withdrawals as the Geneva agreement was implemented.

Kerry drew special attention to reports that antisemitic leaflets had been handed out to Jews in Donetsk, calling on them to register with the separatist authorities. The separatists denied responsibility.

Without specifically assigning blame, Kerry said: "In the year 2014, after all the violence and the journey of history, this is not just intolerable, it's grotesque. It's beyond unacceptable. Whoever is involved in these activities, wherever they crawled out of, there is no place for that."

Tensions continued to rise in the east between residents supporting and opposing the new Kiev government. Protesters gathered outside police headquarters in Stakhanov to demand the local police chief's resignation. They attempted to storm the building, but were reportedly repelled by residents who formed a human shield in front of the station.

On Thursday, hundreds gathered in Donetsk to demonstrate for Ukrainian territorial integrity. The rally ended peacefully, unlike similar demonstrations in previous weeks where pro-Russian protesters beat participants. Student Dima Balakai said he was there to oppose the Russian-backed "bandits" occupying the regional administration building.

"There are no violations against the Russian language here," he said, referring to pro-Russian protesters' tendency to blame Kiev for oppressing Russian speakers. "If I speak Ukrainian at the institute, they could soon kick me out."

He said he was beaten by a crowd of young men at a similar rally on 4 March.

Activists from the "people's republic" occupying the administration building went to Donetsk airport to demand negotiations with officials. They told the Guardian they wanted to prevent any military flights from landing, as well as ensure that Russian citizens could arrive freely. The Russian airline Aeroflot said the Ukrainian border service had placed an entry ban on Russian men aged 16 to 60. The Russian foreign ministry said it had requested more information from its Ukrainian counterpart, but journalists at Kiev's Borispol airport reported seeing Russian male passengers turned back.

Donetsk activists said such an entry ban has already been in place de facto in eastern Ukraine. Dima Prokopshuk said two friends from Russia whom he had invited to his recent wedding were turned back at the Ukrainian border three times even though they tried to enter from Crimea, Belgorod and Rostov-on-Don.

Related Articles:

Putin says Ukraine risks abyss, dialogue only solution

Putin, Merkel back Ukraine OSCE mission in phone call: Kremlin

Putin says Ukraine risks abyss, dialogue only solution

Yahoo – AFP, 17 April 2014

Russia's President Vladimir Putin gives his annual televised question-and-answer

session in Moscow (AFP Photo/Alexei Nikolosky)

Armed men gather beside armoured personnel carriers (APC) as they stand guard outside the regional state building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk, on April 16, 2014

Moscow (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused Ukraine's new authorities of driving the country towards the abyss but said that dialogue was the only way out of the intensifying crisis.

"Only through dialogue, through democratic procedures and not with the use of armed forces, tanks and planes can order be imposed in the country," Putin said at the start of a major nationwide phone-in broadcast on Russian television.

"It is very important today to think about how to get out of this situation and offer people a genuine dialogue and not one just for show," added Putin, saying he believed the talks opening Thursday in Geneva between top diplomats on the crisis were "extremely important".

Armed men gather beside armoured

 personnel carriers (APC) as they stand

 guard outside the regional state building

 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk,

 on April 16, 2014 (AFP Photo/Genya

Savilov)

He accused the Ukrainian authorities who took over after the fall of president Viktor Yanukovych of driving the country to the abyss.

"I hope that they manage to understand towards what abyss the Kiev authorities are going, dragging with them the whole country," said Putin.

Putin slammed the Kiev government for launching a military operation against separatist activists who have seized official buildings across southeast Ukraine.

"This is one more serious crime by the current Kiev authorities," he said.

He also said it was "nonsense" to claim Russian forces were operating in the east of Ukraine, saying those involved in protest actions were "all local citizens".

"That is all nonsense," he said.

"In the east of Ukraine there are no Russian units. There are no special forces, no instructors. These are are local citizens," he said, adding this was proved by the fact the activists had "taken off their masks".

"I have told our Western partners that they (the activists) are going nowhere. They are the masters of this land. And they must be spoken to."

But Putin also explicitly acknowledged that Russian troops had operated in Crimea during and before the referendum that led to its annexation by Moscow from Ukraine. Previously he denied the soldiers were Russian, saying anyone could have bought military uniforms in a store.

"Our goal was to ensure the conditions for a free vote," Putin said, explaining who were the soldiers in uniforms without insignia who appeared in Crimea in late February.

"Behind the local defence forces were our soldiers. They acted correctly, but decisively and professionally," he said. "We had to protect people from possible use of weapons" on Ukrainian military bases.

Edward Snowden appears via video for Putin press conference. Screengrab

from Russia Today/YouTube

Related Article:

Putin tells Edward Snowden: Russia doesn't carry out mass surveillance