World

KIEV/DONETSK, Ukraine — Confectionary magnate Petro Poroshenko won Ukraine’s presidential election on Sunday with an absolute majority, exit polls showed, averting the need for a run-off vote next month that he had said could destabilise the country.

Two polls gave Poroshenko, a billionaire businessman with long experience in government, 55.9 to 57.3 per cent, well ahead of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko in second place with just over 12 per cent. If confirmed by results on Monday, there will be no need for a run-off vote on June 15.

Ukrainians, weary of six months of political turmoil, hope their new president will be able to pull their country of 45 million people back from the brink of bankruptcy, dismemberment and civil war.

But, highlighting the scale of the challenge facing Poroshenko, armed pro-Russian separatists barred people from voting in much of Ukraine’s Donbass industrial heartland on Sunday, turning the main city of Donetsk into a ghost town.

Poroshenko, 48, has promised closer economic and political ties with the West in defiance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he will also have to try to mend shattered relations with Ukraine’s giant northern neighbour, which provides most of its natural gas and is the major market for its exports.

Upheaval

Sunday’s election marked the culmination of a revolution that erupted last November, forced a pro-Russian president to flee in February and spiralled into an existential crisis when Moscow responded by declaring its right to invade Ukraine.

The pro-Moscow separatists have proclaimed independent “people’s republics” in the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, and blocked voting there as that would imply they were still part of Ukraine. Nor was any vote held in Crimea, which Russia annexed in March after the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych.

Ukrainian officials hailed a high voter turnout in much of the sprawling country but said only about 20 per cent of polling stations in the two restive eastern regions had functioned.

Putin, who branded eastern Ukraine “New Russia” last month, has made more accommodating noises of late, saying on Saturday he would respect the voters’ will. He has announced the pullback of tens of thousands of Russian troops massed on the border.

But the absence of more than 15 per cent of the potential electorate from the election could give Moscow an excuse to raise doubts about the victor’s legitimacy and continue applying pressure on the new president in Kiev.

Poroshenko is hardly a new face in Ukrainian politics, having served in a Cabinet under Yanukovyich, and also under a previous government led by Yanukovyich’s foes. This breadth of experience has given him a reputation as a pragmatist capable of bridging Ukraine’s divide between supporters and foes of Moscow.

He nevertheless was a strong backer of the street protests that toppled Yanukovych and is thus acceptable to many in the “Maidan” movement of pro-European protesters who have kept their tented camp in the capital to keep pressure on the new leaders.

Since Yanukovych fled in February after more than 100 people were killed, Moscow has refused to recognise the interim leaders in Kiev, describing them as a fascist junta who threaten the safety of millions of Russian speakers.

Ukrainians hope the vote can help because Moscow could not so quickly dismiss an elected leader with a solid mandate.

The United States and European Union also view the election as a decisive step towards ending their worst confrontation with Moscow since the Cold War.

Their response to Russian interference in Ukraine so far has been limited to freezing the assets of a few dozen Russian individuals and small firms. But they have threatened to take far more serious measures, even targeting whole sectors of Russian industry, if Moscow interferes with the vote.

‘Violation of my rights’

Some Ukrainians in the east who tried to vote complained about being denied their democratic right.

“What kind of polls are these? Things are bad,” said pensioner Grigory Nikitayich, 72, in Donetsk.

Even Ukrainian soldiers sent to assert the government’s authority in the east said they had no place to vote.

“Our superiors promised we would be able to vote here but it turns out that is not so. This is a violation of my rights, it’s ridiculous — I am here to safeguard an election in which I cannot vote,” said Ivan Satsuk, a soldier from the Kiev region sent to man a roadblock near the eastern port of Mariupol.

Ukraine’s interim Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk hailed Sunday’s election as a victory for democracy and the rule of law despite the disruption in the east.

“Efforts by the Russian Federation and the terrorists it finances to derail the elections are doomed to failure. We will have a legitimate head of state,” he said before polls closed.

Moscow denies financing or training the separatists, denials that Western countries dismiss as absurd.

Putin pledged on Saturday to “respect” the people’s choice and work with Ukraine’s new administration — a conciliatory move during an economic forum at which he had acknowledged that US and EU sanctions over Ukraine were hurting the Russian economy.

He played down talk of a return to Cold War with the West and dismissed the idea he was bent on restoring the former USSR, whose collapse he has in the past lamented.

BANGKOK — Thailand’s coup leaders said Saturday that they would keep former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Cabinet members and anti-government protest leaders detained for up to a week to give them “time to think” and to keep the country calm. 

Outspoken academics were also summoned to report to the junta.

The ruling military council also dissolved the country’s senate on Saturday, stripping away the last democratic institution in the country.

The moves appear aimed at consolidating power and preventing any high-profile figures from rallying opposition to the military, which seized power Thursday after months of sometimes violent street protests and deadlock between the elected government and protesters supported by Thailand’s elite establishment.

For a second day, hundreds of anti-coup protesters defied the military’s ban on large gatherings, shouting slogans and waving signs Saturday outside a Bangkok cinema before moving on to Victory Monument, a major city landmark several kilometres away.

The demonstrators briefly confronted rows of soldiers and police who were lined up with riot shields on a road leading to the monument, with a few scuffles breaking out before most of the protesters broke away. 

They were later seen streaming onto the city’s Skytrain elevated transit system, apparently riding over police lines to the monument.

By late afternoon, about 500 demonstrators had gathered at Victory Monument. Army and police presence was low key.

Most of Bangkok, however, remained calm on Saturday, and there was little military presence on the streets.

Deputy army spokesperson, Col. Weerachon Sukondhapatipak, said that all those detained by the junta were being well-treated and that the aim of the military was to achieve a political compromise. 

He said later that “at least 100” people were in military custody, but he could not provide exact numbers or names.

“This is in a bid for everybody who is involved in the conflict to calm down and have time to think,” Weerachon said. “We don’t intend to limit their freedom, but it is to relieve the pressure.”

The military leaders also summoned 35 other people, including more politicians, political activists and, for the first time, outspoken academics, to “maintain peace and order”. It was not immediately clear whether they would be detained.

One of those on the list, Kyoto University professor of Southeast Asian studies Pavin Chachavalpongpun, said by phone from Japan that he would not turn himself in. He said the summons meant the junta felt insecure.

“The military claiming to be a mediator in the Thai conflict, that is all just nonsense,” he said. “This is not about paving the way for reform and democratisation. We are really going back to the crudest form of authoritarianism.”

The junta announced in a televised statement Saturday evening that it would assume all lawmaking power and that the senate would be dissolved.

It had left the senate in place when it suspended the constitution and dissolved the lower house of parliament on Thursday, presumably in hopes that the upper house might later approve some of its measures and provide a vestige of democracy. 

The reason for Saturday’s about-face was not known.

Several nations have condemned the coup. The United States, a key ally of Thailand, suspended $3.5 million in military aid on Friday, and recommended that Americans reconsider any non-essential travel to the Southeast Asian country.

The army says it launched the coup to prevent more turmoil after two days of peace talks in which neither political faction would agree to back down from its stance in the ongoing crisis. 

It was the 12th time in eight decades that Thailand’s powerful military has seized power.

For months, anti-government protesters linked to Thailand’s royalist establishment had blocked streets in Bangkok, demanding that the government step down over allegations of corruption and ties to Yingluck’s brother, exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was himself deposed in a 2006 military coup.

Populist parties affiliated with the Shinawatras have won every election since 2001 in Thailand.  Thaksin still wields enormous influence over the country’s political affairs and remains at the heart of the ongoing crisis.

The protesters have been demanding that the government resign in favour of an unelected council, while the government said it was elected by a clear majority in 2010 and could not step down. 

An election was held in February, but it was invalidated by a court after violence disrupted voting.

It was unclear Saturday exactly how many political leaders were being detained by the army.

Known to be among them were two former prime ministers: Yingluck, who was removed from office by a court earlier this month on nepotism charges, and her temporary replacement, Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan.

Several Cabinet members as well as leaders of the anti-government protests have been held since Thursday’s coup.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged Thailand to “ensure respect for human rights and a prompt restoration of the rule of law in the country”. 

Human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, criticised the detentions of political leaders.

KIEV — Ukraine was counting down Saturday to a presidential election seen as crucial to its very survival after months of turmoil that has driven the country to the brink of civil war.

Sunday’s vote comes with tensions running high after a bloody upsurge in fighting in the east, where pro-Russian separatists are fighting against central government rule.

In what could be a significant move in Ukraine’s bitter confrontation with its former masters in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared on Friday that he would respect the outcome of the vote.

Putin has in the past given only grudging backing to what Kiev and the West hope will restore stability after months of crisis sparked by the toppling of Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin president in February, which later saw Russia annex Crimea and pro-Moscow separatists launch an insurgency in the east.

“We understand that the people of Ukraine want their country to emerge from this crisis,” Putin said at an economic forum in Saint Petersburg.

“We will treat their choice with respect.”

But he said Ukraine had descended into “chaos and full-scale civil war”, accusing the United States of causing the crisis by backing the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych, who fled in February after months of sometimes bloody pro-EU street protests.

The days before the election have been blighted by a resurgence in deadly fighting between the Ukraine military and the rebels who have declared independence in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Seven people were killed outside Donetsk city on Friday, a day after the deaths of 19 soldiers in the heaviest loss for the Ukraine military since the conflict erupted in early April.

About 150 people have been killed in the east since then, according to an AFP tally based on UN and Ukrainian government figures.

Interim president Oleksandr Turchynov called on voters to turn out in force to prevent Ukraine “being turned into a part of a post-Soviet empire”.

The authorities are mobilising over 75,000 thousand police and volunteers to try to ensure security on polling day, with pro-Russian separatists threatening to disrupt the vote in areas under their control.

Sunday’s vote is seen as the most crucial since Ukraine’s independence in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, with, the country facing the threat of partition and possible bankruptcy.

Billionaire chocolate baron Petro Poroshenko is the favourite, enjoying a near 30-point lead over former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, but opinion polls say the vote is likely to go to a run-off on June 15.

In another move that could ease tensions, Putin last week ordered the withdrawal of some 40,000 troops whose presence along Ukraine’s border was causing jitters particularly among former Soviet satellites.

The head of Russia’s army said Friday the pullback could take at least 20 days.

The United States responded with caution to Putin’s comments, with White House spokesperson Jay Carney saying: “We would welcome an indication from Russia that they would accept the results of a free and fair, and democratic election in Ukraine.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya said Putin’s words needed to be followed by “specific actions”.

Kiev’s interim leaders admit they will have a tough time making sure polling goes smoothly in the east, where officials have reported numerous cases of intimidation by the rebels and the seizure of election commissions.

At a school in central Donetsk that should be a polling station, caretaker Olga Viktorovna showed AFP around an empty hall where there are no preparations for the election.

“We have always held presidential and local elections here but this time there won’t be anything it seems,” she said.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is sponsoring a peace roadmap for Ukraine, will have around 1,000 observers on the ground.

“The election will take place under any circumstances and we will get a legitimately elected president,” said deputy Central Election Commission chief Andriy Magera.

BANGKOK — Thailand’s army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha seized control of the government in a coup on Thursday, two days after he declared martial law, saying the military had to restore order and push through reforms after six months of turmoil.

The military declared a 10pm until 5am curfew, suspended the constitution and told outgoing Cabinet ministers to report to an army base in the north of the capital by the end of the day. Rival protest camps were ordered to disperse.

Thailand is locked in a protracted power struggle between supporters of ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra and opponents backed by the royalist establishment that has polarised the country and battered its economy.

“In order for the situation to return to normal quickly and for society to love and be at peace again... and to reform the political, economic and social structure, the military needs to take control of power,” Prayuth said in the televised address.

The general made his broadcast after a meeting to which he had summoned the rival factions in Thailand’s drawn-out political conflict, with the aim of finding a compromise to end six months of anti-government protests.

But no progress was made and Prayuth wound up the gathering by announcing he was seizing power, according to a participant.

The Thai armed forces have a long history of intervening in politics — there have been 18 previous successful or attempted coups since the country became a constitutional monarchy in 1932, most recently when Thaksin was deposed in 2006.

Hundreds of soldiers surrounded the meeting at Bangkok’s Army Club shortly before the coup announcement and troops took away Suthep Thaugsuban, leader of the protests against the pro-Thaksin government.

Some of the other meeting participants were being held back in the venue afterwards, said a Reuters reporter waiting outside.

Shots fired into air

The army ordered rival protest camps to break up and soldiers fired into the air to disperse thousands of pro-government “red shirt” activists gathered in Bangkok’s western outskirts, a spokesman for the group said.

The military detained at least one leader of the activists, said the spokesman, Thanawut Wichaidit.

A Reuters witness later said the protesters were leaving peacefully. Earlier their leader, Jatuporn Prompan, said they would continue their rally despite the coup.

The army had declared martial law on Tuesday, saying the move was necessary to prevent violence.

Twenty-eight people have been killed and 700 injured since the anti-government protests erupted late last year.

“Martial law may have been to test the waters, the army gave the opposing camps a chance to negotiate a way out but I think the endgame was always the military taking over,” said Kan Yuanyong of the Siam Intelligence Unit think tank.

“The possibility of conflict is now much higher,” he said. “Thaksin will fight back.”

Former telecommunications tycoon Thaksin has lived in self-exile since 2008 to avoid a jail term for graft, but still commands the loyalty of legions of rural and urban poor, and exerts a huge influence over politics, most recently through a government run by his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra.

He was not available for comment but a pro-Thaksin activist in his hometown of Chiang Mai said there was no immediate plan to protest.

“As of now we will not head to Bangkok, no plans. We will follow today’s situation closely first,” said Mahawon Kawang, a red shirt leader in Chiang Mai.

In a first round of talks on Wednesday, Prayuth had called on the two sides to agree on a compromise that would have hinged around the appointment of an interim prime minister, political reforms and the timing of an election.

But neither side backed down from their entrenched positions on Wednesday and again on Thursday, participants said.

“As we cannot find a way to bring the country to peace and everyone won’t back down I would like to announce that I will take power. Everyone must sit still,” Prayuth told the meeting, according to one participant who declined to be identified.

The army has also clamped down on the media, including partisan television channels, and warned people not to spread inflammatory material on social media.

Leaders of the ruling Puea Thai Party and the opposition Democrat Party, the Senate leader and the five-member Election Commission had joined the second round of talks on Thursday.

Acting Prime Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongphaisan, who did not attend, told reporters before the talks that his government could not resign as its enemies were demanding as that would contravene the constitution.

“The government wants the problem solved in a democratic way which includes a government that comes from elections,” he said.

Yingluck was forced to step down as premier by a court two weeks ago, but her caretaker government, buffeted by six months of protests against it, had remained nominally in power.

Government officials were not available for comment after the coup announcement.

Thailand’s gross domestic product contracted 2.1 per cent in January-March from the previous three months, largely because of the unrest, adding to fears it is stumbling into recession.

But weary investors have generally taken Thailand’s frequent political upheavals in their stride, and analysts said the impact on markets in Southeast Asia’s second largest economy might not be too severe.

“It’s back to the old days,” said Christopher Wong, senior investment manager at Aberdeen Asset Management Asia in Singapore. “Probably with the military coming in there’s a bit more stability. There may be a knee-jerk reaction... but as the dust settles it is probably back to normal.”

Thailand’s SET index closed before the coup announcement, ending 0.2 per cent higher. The index is up 8 per cent this year. The baht weakened to 32.54 to the dollar after the coup announcement, from 32.38 earlier.

The anti-government protesters want to rid the country of the influence of Thaksin, who they say is a corrupt crony capitalist who commandeered a fragile democracy and used taxpayers’ money to buy votes with populist giveaways.

They wanted a “neutral” interim prime minister to oversee electoral reforms before any new vote.

VOLNOVAKHA, Ukraine — Separatist rebels firing mortar shells and grenades killed at least nine Ukrainian soldiers in the restive east on Thursday, dealing a heavy blow to the beleaguered government just three days before a crunch presidential poll.

The attacks were the deadliest for the military since it launched an offensive six weeks ago against a pro-Moscow insurgency that is threatening to tear the country apart.

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused Russia of trying to “escalate the conflict” and disrupt Sunday’s vote, calling on the UN Security Council to hold an urgent meeting on the crisis.

He charged that the Kremlin’s announcement of a troop withdrawal from the border was merely a “bluff”, saying that even if the soldiers were moving away, “armed terrorists” were still infiltrating Ukraine.

Western pressure is mounting on Russia not to meddle in the snap election, seen as crucial to prevent all-out civil war erupting on Europe’s eastern flank.

Russia set Western nerves on edge when it massed some 40,000 troops on the border, raising fears of an invasion into eastern Ukraine after its seizure of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday he has seen some evidence of “limited Russian troop activity in the vicinity of the border with Ukraine that may suggest that some of these forces are preparing to withdraw”.

But rebels in Ukraine’s heavily Russified eastern industrial regions of Donetsk and Lugansk are showing no signs of scaling back resistance to what they regard as an illegitimate government in Kiev.

The Ukrainian defence ministry said the worst of the two overnight attacks saw the insurgents blow up a military vehicle after volleying mortar shells and grenades at a roadblock set up by government troops near the Donetsk region town of Volnovakha.

Eight men were killed and another 17 wounded.

Another soldier was killed and two injured in a similar strike near Rubizhne in Lugansk.

Kiev’s interim government launched its so-called “anti-terrorist” operation in mid-April aimed at crushing the rebels who have seized more than a dozen eastern cities and towns and declared sovereignty in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

An AFP toll compiled through UN and Ukrainian government sources puts the number of deaths suffered in fighting across the east since mid-April at around 140.

President Vladimir Putin — his government wary of devastating sanctions threatened by Washington and its European allies — has so far refrained from recognising the legitimacy of the rebel republics.

But Putin rejects the legitimacy of the pro-Western team that toppled a Moscow-backed president in February on the back of a massive wave of street protests.

And he has given only the most grudging backing for an election that is all but certain to bring a pro-Western president to power who will seek to fold the nation of 46 million more fully into Europe and break for good its historic dependence on Russia.

“What is important is not the election itself,” Putin said Thursday during a visit to China.

“What is important is that [Kiev] repairs relations with the regions so that people start feeling like full-fledged citizens again,” he said.

US Vice President Joe Biden warned Putin that Russia’s economy — already approaching recession — would suffer immediate consequences should Russia be judged to have interfered in the vote.

“If Russia undermines these elections on Sunday, we must remain resolute in imposing greater costs,” Biden told reporters in Bucharest on Wednesday.

Ukraine’s interior ministry said it is mobilising more than 55,000 police and 20,000 volunteers to ensure that Sunday’s presidential ballot goes off smoothly, despite fears it will be difficult to organise in the east.

Rebel leaders have vowed to disrupt the vote in Donetsk and Lugansk, the heartland of Ukraine’s Soviet-era industrial rust belt that churns out more than 15 per cent of the country’s economic output.

Armed separatists on Thursday seized four coal mines in the Lugansk region, and demanded that its workers supply them with explosives, the Ukrainian energy ministry said.

Earlier Thursday, the self-proclaimed leader of Lugansk Valery Bolotov proclaimed martial law and called for Putin to send peacekeeping forces that could help avert a “humanitarian catastrophe”.

Sunday’s poll pits the overwhelming favourite Petro Poroshenko — a 48-year-old confectioner whose chocolate factories have been shuttered in Russia on dubious health and safety grounds — against nearly 20 challengers including the divisive nationalist ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko.

JOS, Nigeria — Rescue workers on Wednesday combed through the rubble of Nigeria’s deadliest bomb attack after at least 118 people were killed in the central city of Jos, with Boko Haram blamed for the atrocity.

Emergency services picked through the burnt-out remains of vehicles and collapsed buildings in the New Abuja Market area of the city, where two car bombs exploded within 20 minutes of each other on Tuesday.

The attack was the latest affront to the Nigerian government’s internationally backed security crackdown in response to the mass abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls on April 14 that has sparked global attention.

Two more attacks in villages near the girls’ hometown of Chibok in northeastern Borno state were, meanwhile, reported, with witnesses saying that 30 people were killed on Monday and Tuesday.

In Jos, where Boko Haram have attacked before, plateau state governor Jonah Jang’s spokesman said the bombing bore the hallmarks of the Islamist extremists.

“This is not a Berom-Fulani attack,” Pam Ayuba told AFP, referring to the long-standing ethnic violence between Christian farmers and Muslim herdsmen that has claimed tens of thousands of lives in the region in the last two decades.

“The investigation is still ongoing but this is clearly an extension of the terrorist activity that has affected the northeast of the country, the Boko Haram insurgents.”

Kyari Mohammed, a Boko Haram specialist and chairman of the Centre for Peace Studies at Modibbo Adama University in Yola, Adamawa state, also blamed the Islamists.

“They’re the only ones capable of doing this. Every other rebel or fringe group can use bombs but not of this scale or sophistication,” he said.

“I have the feeling that what they want to achieve is to escalate things because of the international pressure which has built up [because of the kidnapping].”

On the day of the mass abduction, Boko Haram launched a car bomb attack on a bus station in a suburb of the capital Abuja which killed 75 and are suspected of a copy-cat attack in the same location on May 1 which left 19 dead.

Four people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack in the northern city of Kano on Sunday, although it was unclear whether the attack was linked to Boko Haram, despite the militants having attacked the city before.

Rescue workers were among those who were caught up in the Jos bombings.

As they tended to the injured from the first blast, the second detonated. Improvised explosive devices were hidden in a minibus and truck, the military said.

Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said late on Tuesday that 118 were killed and 56 injured but warned that the death toll could rise further.

“Our director general is on his way to the scene now,” NEMA spokesman Manzo Ezekiel said on Wednesday.

“He and his team will carry out a rapid assessment of the situation and then we will be able to estimate the losses that we incurred.

“So, for now, we are holding at 118 [dead] but there is a likelihood of some changes.”

Nigeria and its President Goodluck Jonathan have been criticised for their slow response to the Chibok kidnapping as well as their overall response to the five-year insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.

The international attention on the plight of the missing girls has seen specialist teams from the United States, Britain, France and Israel sent to Nigeria to help in the search effort.

Escalation of violence 

Parliament on Tuesday approved a request for a further six-month extension of a state of emergency in Borno and neighbouring Yobe and Adamawa states with the caveat that non-military means should also be explored to end the violence.

Jonathan is adamant that there will be no negotiations with Boko Haram on swapping the girls for militant fighters held in Nigerian jails but the government has maintained it is open to dialogue on wider issues.

In New York, Nigeria submitted a request to the United Nations to proscribe Boko Haram as an international terrorist group, while the country’s neighbours have vowed to step up cooperation to prevent a regional conflagration.

BELGRADE — A landmine dislodged by devastating floods in the Balkans exploded in Bosnia, officials said Wednesday, hurting no one but highlighting the dangers of a huge clean-up operation as governments began counting the costs.

The device, one of an estimated 120,000 mines left over from the 1990s Yugoslav wars, went off on late on Tuesday in the Brcko district of northern Bosnia, the national Mine Action Centre (MAC) said.

A fridge containing nine explosive devices was also found in a flooded garden, it said. Other dangerous finds included a rocket launcher and a large plastic bin full of bombs and ammunition, also thought to date from the 1992-95 war.

“Some mines are made of plastic and they float like plastic plates,” said Fikret Smajis from the MAC. “But even those made of iron... can be easily washed away.”

Water from the worst floods in more than a century, which have killed 49 people and caused the evacuation of almost 150,000 people in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, was meanwhile receding in some areas.

But the situation remained tense in the Serbian capital Belgrade and in northeast Bosnia in the wake of days of torrential rain in southeast Europe last week that caused the River Sava and its tributaries to burst their banks.

“The River Sava is still threatening,” said Blaz Zuparic, an official in the Bosnian town of Orasje pinning its hopes on a six-kilometre wall of sandbags.

“The damage is so huge that the region will take more than 10 years to recover,” he said.

“Only God can help us to hold on.”

In Belgrade, where the Sava flows into the Danube, volunteers have been working around-the-clock to erect a wall of sandbags 12 kilometres long.

“We are expecting a peak this Wednesday, and again on Friday. If that passes we will be able to say that we have protected Belgrade,” Mayor Sinisa Mali said.

More than 1.6 million people in the region have been affected. In Bosnia, a quarter of the 3.8 million population is without safe drinking water.

Vast tracts of farmland are still under water, large areas are without power and many towns and villages remain deluged and difficult to access. The death toll may yet rise as more bodies are found.

Authorities have warned of a risk of epidemics as drowned farm animals rot, and efforts by health experts and the army to recover the bloated carcasses have been hampered.

“We have to act quickly in order to avoid an even more serious catastrophe, that of infectious diseases,” Serbian Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar said.

Serbian health officials were also spraying against mosquitoes, according to the Public Health Institute.

Preliminary estimates in Serbia alone indicate that the cost for cleaning up will far exceed 0.64 percent of the country’s total economic output, the level at which a country can request EU aid.

BANGKOK — Thailand’s army chief imposed martial law Tuesday after months of deadly anti-government protests caused political paralysis, but insisted the intervention did not amount to yet another military coup.

Gun-toting troops fanned out after martial law was declared in a dawn broadcast, as General Prayut Chan-O-Cha exploited century-old legislation that confers far-reaching powers on the armed forces to act in an emergency.

But he left the caretaker civilian government in office and later invited the country’s warring political factions to sit down for talks, as the United States, the EU, Japan and Southeast Asian neighbours urged Thailand to stay on a democratic track and resolve its differences peacefully.

Soldiers and military vehicles were seen in the heart of the capital’s retail and hotel district. Troops were also positioned at TV stations where broadcasts were suspended under sweeping censorship orders, although regular Thais appeared largely unfazed.

The dismissal of prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra earlier this month in a controversial court ruling has stoked tensions in the kingdom, which has endured years of political turmoil.

“Red Shirt” supporters of Yingluck and her brother Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed as premier in a 2006 coup, have warned of the threat of civil war if power is handed to an unelected leader, as opposition protesters demand.

Thaksin, who lives abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption, said on Twitter that the imposition of martial law was expected but must not “destroy” democracy.

The backdrop is a nearly decade-long struggle pitting a royalist establishment — backed by parts of the military, judiciary and Bangkok-based elite — against Thaksin’s billionaire family, which has traditionally enjoyed strong support among poor and rural voters in the north.

New York-based Human Rights Watch branded the imposition of martial law a “de facto coup”, voicing alarm at the impact on freedom of expression.

‘Situation not normal’ 

It was not immediately clear how the intervention of the generals — traditionally seen as staunch defenders of the monarchy — would affect the balance in the long-running power struggle.

The government officially remained in office, and General Prayut presented himself as a mediator.

“We are in the process of inviting both sides to talk but at the minute the situation is still not normal... that’s why I have had to invoke martial law,” he told reporters.

“The military will not tolerate any more loss of lives.”

Martial law allows the army to ban public gatherings, restrict people’s movements, conduct searches, impose curfews and detain suspects for up to seven days.

Thailand has been without a fully functioning government since December, disrupting government spending, spooking investors and deterring foreign tourists.

The United States, a key ally of Thailand, said the use of martial law must be temporary and urged all parties “to respect democratic principles”.

Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy is sliding towards recession and Japan, whose companies have some of the biggest foreign investment in Thailand, also expressed “grave concerns” at the unfolding crisis.

Caretaker Prime Minister Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan, who replaced Yingluck, called for fresh polls on August 3 to cut through the political quagmire, urging election authorities to help craft a decree for the king’s endorsement next week.

But the protesters say they will not stomach new polls without widespread reforms to weaken Thaksin’s influence on Thai politics.

‘No need to panic’ 

The early hours announcement on military-run television said martial law had been invoked “to restore peace and order for people from all sides” after nearly seven months of protests that have left 28 people dead and hundreds wounded.

“This is not a coup,” it said. “The public do not need to panic but can still live their lives as normal.”

Despite the assurances, concerns a military takeover was under way were fuelled by the troop presence and strict censorship of media in the interests of “national security”.

“I think what we are looking at is a prelude to a coup. That is for sure. It is all part of a plot to create a situation of ungovernability to legitimise this move by the army,” said Pavin Chachavalpongpun from the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at Japan’s Kyoto University.

Anti-government demonstrators vowed to remain on the streets.

“We will still keep fighting — we have not won at all,” their firebrand leader Suthep Thaugsuban said at a rally late Tuesday.

His movement forced the annulment of elections in February and is pressing the Thai upper chamber to invoke the constitution to dump the caretaker government and appoint a new premier.

It is unclear what legal basis they are drawing on.

Some 25 senators signed a petition Tuesday urging the interventionist constitutional court to move against the Cabinet.

But on the streets of the capital, where a military crackdown on pro-Thaksin Red Shirts protests in 2010 under the previous government left dozens dead, life mostly went on as usual.

Thais have become accustomed to political upheaval, although there was some confusion and nervousness over how the crisis will unfold.

“Whether martial law will be helpful or not I can’t say because it’s only the first day,” said Chitra Hiranrat, 49, as she waited for a motorcycle taxi to go to work.

BELGRADE — Serbia declared three days of national mourning Tuesday as the death toll from the worst floods to hit the Balkans in living memory rose to 49 and health officials warned of a possible epidemic.

More than 1.6 million people have been hit as the river Sava and its tributaries have burst their banks, inundating tens of thousands of hectares of farmland, and destroying homes and buildings.

At least 49 people have been killed already by the worst floods in central Europe for more than a century.

Weather officials warned that water levels of the mighty Danube, Europe’s second longest river after the Volga, could rise further Wednesday at its confluence with the Sava in the Serbian capital Belgrade.

Serbia, which has been the worst affected by the deluge, declared three days of mourning for its victims from Wednesday.

“We have been affected 10 times more than the other countries in the region, but I hope the toll would not show that,” Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said.

Authorities have begun assessing the damage caused by the floods, already expected to reach hundreds of millions of euros.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said its president, Suma Chakrabarti, would advise the new Serbian government — sworn in late last month — on its response to the flooding during a three-day visit from Wednesday.

Sarajevo on Tuesday also declared a day of mourning for Bosnia’s 25 dead as thousands of volunteers struggled to reinforce dikes along the Sava river.

More than 100,000 people have already been evacuated in Bosnia in the worst exodus since its 1992-95 war.

Threat of epidemics 

The World Health Organisation said Tuesday that it has sent an expert to advise Serbian authorities on sanitation and ensuring safe drinking water for people as they return home after the floods.

The UN health agency said it is also working to mobilise medical supplies, including supplies to fight diseases commonly spread by floods.

In Bosnia, health authorities have begun disinfecting flooded areas in a bid to prevent outbreaks turning into an epidemic as temperatures rise.

Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija said more than a quarter of the country’s population of 3.8 million has been affected by the floods after the heaviest rainfalls on record began last week.

“We will face a major fight against epidemics and infectious diseases which are inevitable after such floods,” said Nermin Niksic, the prime minister of the Muslim Croat Federation, one of the two entities that make up post-war Bosnia.

Local health officials warned of the possible outbreak of “infectious diseases”, calling on the population from affected areas to use only bottled water.

Tonnes of dead animal carcasses have already been taken from farms for destruction, but muddy areas and landslides have hampered their collection.

“In some areas there were cases of enterocolitis which could be a signal of epidemics,” said Sevledina Sarajlic-Spahic, the top health officer in Zenica, one of the worst affected towns in Bosnia.

Belgrade braces 

Serbia, where more than 30,000 people have been evacuated from the areas affected by floods, braced for more rising waters.

Hydrologist Sinisa Mihajlovic predicted the Danube would swell further in the coming days but that it should “remain within the flood-defence limit”.

Belgrade mayor Sinisa Mali said the capital was “ready” in case water levels rise further on the Sava and Danube.

“We are following the situation closely, and we are ready to intervene if needed,” Mali told reporters.

In Belgrade, volunteers have placed some 12 kilometres of sandbags to prevent flooding.

“I didn’t hesitate at all,” said Milenko Pajic, an 18-year-old student. “If my grandfather could fight for his country with arms, I can pack up and hand over sandbags.”

Meanwhile in Obrenovac, one of the worst-hit towns in Serbia, rescuers have managed to contain the waters around the Nikola Tesla power plant which produces half the country’s electricity.

Vucic told a government meeting that so far 14 deaths were registered in Obrenovac alone after another two victims were found, with autopsy results showing half of them drowned.

The disaster claimed another eight lives elsewhere in Serbia and two in neighbouring Croatia.

Landslides claimed at least one other victim in Bosnia.

Dozens of towns and villages have been cut off and more than 2,000 landslides have been reported in the region.

And in another potentially deadly side-effect, officials in Bosnia warned Monday that some 120,000 unexploded mines left over from the Balkan wars of the 1990s could be dislodged and moved.

SEOUL — South Korean President Park Geun-hye, tears rolling down her cheeks, formally apologised on Monday for a ferry disaster that killed about 300 people, mostly school children, and said she would dismantle the coast guard for failing in its duties.

Park has been hit hard by an angry nationwide outcry over the government’s response to South Korea’s worst civilian maritime disaster in 20 years, and the seemingly slow and ineffective rescue operation.

Polls show support for Park has dropped by more than 20 points since the April 16 disaster.

“I apologise to the nation for the pain and suffering that everyone felt, as the president who should have been responsible for the safety and lives of the people,” Park said in a televised national address, her first since the Sewol capsized, and sank with 476 passengers and crew on board.

In an unprecedented show of emotion, tears flowed as she fought back sobs, remembering some of the teenagers who died trying to help one another, calling them heroes.

Park, who is serving a single five-year term, is the daughter of Park Chung-hee, the former military strongman who ruled for nearly two decades in the 1960s and 1970s. She lost both her parents to assassins.

At least 286 people on board the Sewol were killed and 18 remain missing. Only 172 people were rescued, with the rest presumed to have drowned.

Of the passengers, 339 were children and their teachers on a field trip from a high school on the outskirts of Seoul.

Park vowed sweeping reforms to improve oversight, as well as tough punishment for bureaucrats and businesses whose negligence endangers public safety.

“A 20-year-old vessel was bought and refurbished to add excessive capacity, then it was loaded with much more cargo than allowed with a false reporting on weight, but not a single person in the position to supervise stopped any of it,” Park said.

She singled out structural problems within the coast guard as the main reason why there was such a high casualty toll from an accident that played out on national television as the vessel gradually sank with most of the passengers trapped inside.

“Had there been an immediate and proactive rescue operation after the accident, we would have been able to reduce the casualties,” Park said.

The coast guard’s rescue duties would be transferred to a national emergency safety agency to be set up and the national police will take over its investigative function, she said.

Crew abandoned ship

Some of the crew, including the captain, were caught on videotape abandoning ship while the children were repeatedly told to stay put in their cabins and await further orders.

Park has apologised in person to many family members of the victims but her administration has faced continued criticism for its handling of the disaster.

Park’s public support has dropped to 46 per cent, from 70 per cent before the accident, according to a recent poll. Her formal apology and the blueprint for bureaucratic reform have been criticised for coming too late, while her decision to break up the coast guard has also been questioned.

“Although we need to integrate government functions on safety and disaster management, dissolving the coast guard all of sudden can make more problems that may be difficult to fix,” said Professor Lee Jun-han of Incheon National University.

South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, and one of its leading manufacturing and export powerhouses, has developed into one of the world’s most vibrant and technically advanced democracies, but faces criticism that regulatory controls and safety standards have not kept pace.

An electrical device on a subway train exploded and shattered window glass at a station in a satellite city south of Seoul on Monday, injuring 11 passengers who were treated for cuts, media reported, in the second incident involving the capital region’s sprawling subway network this month.

On May 2, two trains collided at a station injuring about 200 people which authorities blamed on a defective signal switch.

Park said the coast guard had not only failed in its search and rescue duty but that, in its current form, it would be unable to prevent another large-scale disaster.

“The coast guard continued to get bigger in size but did not have enough personnel and budget allocated for maritime safety, and training for rescue was very much insufficient,” she said.

All 15 surviving crew members were indicted last week, including the captain and three senior crew members on homicide charges. The remaining 11 crew were indicted for negligence.

The prosecution says the ferry was structurally defective after a remodelling to add capacity and was massively overloaded with cargo. A sharp turn then caused it to list and capsize.

The Sewol had been on a supposedly routine journey from the mainland port of Incheon south to the holiday island of Jeju.