Indonesian anger builds over wildfires, toxic haze<\/p>\n
JAKARTA: Indonesians protested in several cities on Tuesday (Oct 20),\nraging against wildfires and a toxic haze that has made thousands unwell\nfor weeks on end in a crisis that has engulfed Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
Demonstrations were called by students to display dissatisfaction\nwith the government of President Prabowo Subianto, which marked its\nsecond year on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
They railed against perceived ineptitude and corruption during\nprotests in the capital Jakarta, but also in Bandung and Yogyakarta\nelsewhere on Java island, as well as Pekanbaru in Sumatra and Makassar\nin South Sulawesi.<\/p>\n
Many pointed particularly to an inability to put out the fires that\nhave ravaged vast swaths of Borneo and Sumatra islands since July.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we burn, you burn with us!\u201d read a protest banner held up by a\ndemonstrator in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have the right to breathe. Extinguish the fires immediately,\u201d said\nanother.<\/p>\n
Residents in the city of Palangkaraya, on Borneo, told AFP of their\ndespair.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis haze is really bad. Sales are quiet. Prices keep going up, but\nthere\u2019s no income,\u201d said Melsi, a 40-year-old streetside drinks\nvendor.<\/p>\n
She cried as she spoke to AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can we do? We\u2019re the little people, we can\u2019t do anything but\nhope that the government will handle it,\u201d Melsi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBEATEN UP\u201d<\/p>\n
Homemaker Sifra, 29, said her husband and two children have been\ncoughing for a month.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven inside the house, the smoke gets in. Honestly, since the haze,\nmy body aches, as if I\u2019ve been beaten up. The immune system is down. I\nget coughs and colds easily.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sifra, who like many Indonesians has one name, urged the government\nto step up its efforts - echoing the call made by dozens who protested\nin Palangkaraya on Monday to demand the declaration of a state of\nemergency.<\/p>\n
Police detained six activists who had draped Greenpeace protest\nbanners from a monument on Jakarta\u2019s central Bundaran HI roundabout on\nTuesday morning, before the student marches, according to Jeanny Sirait,\na campaigner for the NGO.<\/p>\n
One read: \u201cHaze & Prabowo\u2019s Regime = National Disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Berton Panjaitan told\njournalists in the capital more than 60,000 firefighters, including\nvolunteers, were deployed in dousing efforts countrywide.<\/p>\n
Forty-nine aircraft were available for water bombing and cloud\nseeding to make rain, although many have been grounded intermittently\ndue to the haze.<\/p>\n
The Nusantara Atlas wildfire monitor said on Monday the Indonesian\nblazes have burned more than 1.9 million hectares of land in the first\nnine months of 2026.<\/p>\n
The fires have sent air pollution levels soaring as far afield as\nKuala Lumpur and Singapore.<\/p>\n
Indonesia experiences fires every dry season, but this year\u2019s blazes\nhave been particularly severe, partly due to a particularly severe\nepisode of the El Nino weather phenomenon.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/indonesian-anger-grows-over-wildfires-and-toxic-haze-1792554613", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }