Surabaya, Indonesia – Indonesian police Wednesday used a steamroller to crush thousands of bottles of alcohol and torched a huge stash of seized drugs ahead of Ramadan in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

Islam’s holiest month is due to begin this weekend, with observant Muslims across the world abstaining from eating, drinking, smoking and sex between sunrise and sunset.

Indonesian authorities typically make a show of seizing large quantities of drink and destroying it in the run-up to Ramadan in a reminder to Muslims to abstain from drinking alcohol, which is against Islamic law.

In the second-biggest city of Surabaya, on Java island, authorities used an steamroller to crush about 10,000 bottles of alcohol in a public display in the courtyard of a police station.

The destroyed haul included many bottles of the national beer, Bintang, as well as other ales and clear plastic containers of homemade liquor, which can be dangerous as it is often mixed with toxic substances.

The beer was being sold at unlicensed premises while the homemade brew was illegally produced.

Local police spokeswoman Lily Djafar said the alcohol was confiscated “in the month before Ramadan during an operation across Surabaya”.

Police in the city also incinerated a large quantity of seized narcotics, including thousands of ecstasy pills and 17 kilograms (37 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine.

Similar operations have been carried out in other parts of Indonesia in recent days, including the capital Jakarta.

About 90 per cent of Indonesia’s 255 million inhabitants are Muslim, and most practise a moderate form of Islam. Alcohol is available in major cities and holiday destinations and the country is home to many bars and nightclubs.

However during Ramadan, nightspots close for the whole month in many parts of Indonesia. In Jakarta they usually shut for a short period, at the start of the holy month and the end.

Hardline groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front have been known to raid bars and clubs that stay open during Ramadan, although police have warned against any such vigilante activities this year.

Ramadan begins when the first crescent of a new moon is sighted. It ends with the Eid al-Fitr holiday, a major family event marked by feasting and celebration.

HANOI – Prime Minister  Nguyễn Xuân Phúc will pay an official visit to the United States of America from May 29 to May 31, the Foreign Ministry announced yesterday.

The visit comes at the invitation of US President Donald Trump.

Naypyidaw – Peace talks got underway in Myanmar on Wednesday, with de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi defending her government’s stuttering attempts to end decades of fighting between the military and ethnic rebel groups.

A sea of colour filled the vast conference hall in the capital Naypyidaw as ethnic delegates in traditional costumes mingled with stony-faced military officers in full regalia.

The country has been scarred by some of the world’s longest-running civil wars as various ethnic groups have fought Myanmar’s military for greater autonomy.

Suu Kyi sought to dismiss criticism that little progress has been made on her flagship peace policy, more than a year after her party took power.

“Our collective efforts have started to bear fruit,” she told the conference, according to an official translation of the speech.

“We have now reached the stage where we are able to discuss the basic federal principles that are so important for our country and our people.” Hopes had been high that Myanmar’s first freely elected government for generations would end the running conflicts that have claimed thousands of lives and kept the country mired in poverty.

But many ethnic groups say Suu Kyi has not listened to their concerns and is working too closely with the military, which ruled the country with an iron fist for almost half a century.

This week’s gathering is the second round of peace talks since Suu Kyi’s civilian government came to power.

No rebels are expected to sign up to the National Ceasefire Agreement which she is pushing during the conference – a controversial deal first touted by the previous military-backed government.

But the agenda will cover what shape a federal union might take, and is expected to include the first discussions on whether states will be able to draft their own constitutions.

Allowing states to write their own charters would be an “historic milestone in the post-colonial history of Myanmar,” said Angshuman Choudhury from the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, adding it could “appease powerful ethnic constituencies and… prevent outright secessionism”.

Ongoing clashes

Violence in Myanmar’s northeast has reached its worst point since the conflict-ridden 1980s.

Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee months of heavy fighting between the army and insurgent groups, many of them crossing into neighbouring China, which has sent delegates to the talks.

“We are hoping to be able to hold political discussions and talk directly about stopping the fighting and offensives by the Myanmar military,” Major Tar Pan La from the the Ta’ang National Liberation Army told AFP.

The violence has destroyed much of the fragile trust that minority voters placed in Suu Kyi in the 2015 vote, and her National League for Democracy suffered several losses in recent by-elections.

It has also strengthened the hand of the China-backed United Wa States Army (UWSA), Myanmar’s biggest ethnic armed group and one of the world’s top drug traffickers.

The 25,000-strong militia has brought together several groups still locked in combat with the military into a new negotiating bloc that is refusing to sign up to the government-backed ceasefire.

Representatives from all seven, including the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Arakan Army (AA), touched down in Naypyidaw on Tuesday after weeks of fraught politicking.

“We are hoping for equality and trying especially to stop the fighting,” Sam Lawt, a spokesperson from the UWSA, told AFP at the conference.

But in an apparent warning to any insurgents who are seeking too much autonomy, military commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing told the conference that “some ethnic groups are far beyond the federal system”.

BANGLADESH – Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha yesterday said the government doesn’t have faith even in its own lawmakers as Article 70 which prevents an MP from voting against his/her party in parliament is still in the constitution.

“You don’t trust your own party lawmakers. Members of parliament cannot work independently because of Article 70 of the constitution. Why have you kept this article in the constitution?” he asked Attorney General Mahbubey Alam.

“Why can’t you have faith in parliament?” questioned the chief justice.

He was presiding over a seven-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court for a hearing on the appeal against the High Court verdict that scrapped the 16th amendment to the constitution.

The 16th amendment had empowered parliament to remove judges for incapacity or misbehaviour.

Following a writ petition filed by nine Supreme Court lawyers, the HC on May 5 last year declared the amendment illegal. The government on January 4 this year filed the appeal with the SC challenging the HC verdict.

The SC will resume the hearing tomorrow morning.

Mahbubey Alam yesterday told the court that there is a history of Article 70.

Article 70 says, “A person elected as a member of parliament at an election at which he was nominated as a candidate by a political party shall vacate his seat if he resigns from that party; or votes in parliament against that party; but shall not thereby be disqualified for subsequent election as a member of parliament.”

The provision came into being amid “horse-trading” taking place in different countries, said the AG. In terms of politics, “horse-trading” is bringing in members from the opposition party to gain majority in parliament by resorting to unethical means.

In response, the chief justice asked if there is any certainty that “horse-trading” will not take place while making decisions about judges.

He said there should be an exclusive hearing on Article 70. “We cannot say everything here as it will surface in the media.”

The attorney general said the 16th amendment was made to remove the scars of martial law.

The system of Supreme Judicial Council, which was empowered to recommend judges’ removal, was introduced through a martial law proclamation, the AG said.

The 16th amendment was incorporated to go back to the original constitution. It was in the country’s interest, not for a political purpose, he argued.

Justice Sinha said some laws formulated in 1982 [during the martial law rule] are still now in force.

He added the judiciary never supported martial law.

There is a very sad chapter in the country’s history, the CJ recalled. Without mentioning any name, he said that a highly educated president had to depart as he showed a little neutrality.

Additional Attorney General Murad Reza told the court that Bangladesh is the only example where a chief justice [Abu Sadat Md Sayem] had become the chief martial law administrator by breaking his oath and supported martial law.

Unless there are checks and balances like the 16th amendment, it cannot be guaranteed that the same thing will not happen again, he said.

The attorney general told the SC that parliament members are elected representatives of the people. As the appointing authority, the president should do something about the HC judge who observed in the 16th amendment verdict that many lawmakers have criminal records.

If the allegation against the MPs is true, something tangible should be done, he added.

The chief justice then asked the attorney general how he could make such a comment. “What did you say? Can the president remove a judge?”

Justice Sinha said the executive has already brought the lower judiciary under its control and it is now trying to do the same to the Supreme Court.

“Around 80 per cent judges of the country are from the lower judiciary. In fact, the Supreme Court has no control over them. The courts have become disabled.”

When the attorney general said the sculpture on the Supreme Court premises has become an issue, the chief justice asked him not to raise it.

Justice Sinha said there is a district with no district judge for five months. He questioned how the judiciary is functioning.

He added he always makes comments in the interest of the judiciary.

“The law minister said the salaries of judges have increased and the judiciary is independent. Can the judiciary become independent only through hike of salaries of judges? The salaries of judges increased one year after that of the ministers were hiked,” Sinha said.

The chief justice along with other judges of the apex court bench left the courtroom around 1:15pm, when the court hours ended.

MANILA – Islamist militants battling security forces in a southern Philippine city have taken hostages, including a local priest, the Catholic Church said Wednesday, after President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law to combat the gunmen.

“Father Chito Suganob and others were in the Cathedral of Our Lady Help of Christians when members of the Maute fighting group forced their way into the Cathedral, taking with them Fr. Chito and others as hostages,” Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines president archbishop Socrates Villegas said in a statement.

“They have threatened to kill the hostages if the government forces unleashed against them are not recalled.” Duterte announced on Tuesday night that martial law had been imposed across the southern region of Mindanao, after Islamist militants rampaged through the city of Marawi and engaged in deadly clashes with security forces.

The fighting in Marawi, a mostly Muslim-populated city of 200,000 people, erupted on Tuesday afternoon after security forces raided a house where they believed Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the infamous Abu Sayyaf kidnap gang and Philippine head of the Islamic State group, was hiding.

The United States regards Hapilon as one of the world’s most dangerous terrorists, offering a bounty of $5 million for his capture.

More than 100 gunmen responded to the raid by burning buildings and conducting other diversionary tactics, according to Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.

Security analysts say Hapilon has been trying to unite Filipino militant groups that have professed allegiance to IS.

These include the Maute group, named after two brothers who lead it and which is based near Marawi.

“We call on the Maute group that claims to bear arms in the name of a Merciful and Benevolent God – the very same God we Christians worship and adore – to do the One God true honour by the mercy and benevolence that are two of our God’s most exalted attributes,” Villegas said in the statement.

“At the time of his capture, Fr. Chito was in the performance of his ministry as a priest. He was not a combatant. He was not bearing arms. He was a threat to none. His capture and that of his companions violates every norm of civilised conflict.”

Police and military spokesmen were not immediately available to comment on Villegas’s report of the hostage taking.

HONG KONG – A plane veered off the runway at Hong Kong airport Wednesday after heavy rain lashed the area, forcing the temporary closure of the airstrip and delaying scores of flights.

The China Eastern Airlines flight from Nanjing, which had 141 people on board, skidded onto a grass area as it was taxiing to the gate, Hong Kong’s Airport Authority said.

Two passengers reported feeling unwell and were sent to hospital, the authority said.

The runway – one of two at the airport – was temporarily shuttered, delaying 109 flights, both incoming and outgoing, the authority said, with local media reporting heavy stacking over the storm-soaked city.

Hong Kong, a major transport hub for Asia, issued this year’s first “black rainstorm warning” – the highest of three heavy rain signals – before midday Wednesday, which saw several schools closed for the afternoon.

Around 150 mm of rain has been recorded at the airport since early Wednesday, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.