ASEAN meeting moved to Jakarta due to forest fire problem

JAKARTA (JP): The government has hastily moved the venue for the seventh ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on the Environment from Manado, North Sulawesi, to Jakarta.

State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja said at his office here yesterday that the abrupt decision was made due to the urgent state of forest fires in the country.

The situation, he said, prompted him and other government colleagues to be "at their posts" here instead of "being away".

"It has been moved here to avoid the impression that we ministers are only having a recreational meeting in Manado, while the fires are at an alarming stage," Sarwono said.

The three-day ministerial meeting, to be opened by President Soeharto today at Merdeka Palace, is a biannual meeting.

Environment ministers from nine ASEAN members -- Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- will attend the meeting which will now be held at the Jakarta Convention Center.

The meeting's agenda has yet to be made public but a senior official at Sarwono's office told The Jakarta Post yesterday that forest fires were one of the hottest items to be discussed.

Surna T. Djajadiningrat said "haze pollution" caused by the fires would be discussed as one of the transboundary pollution issues.

The widespread bush, plantation and forest fires in Indonesia -- blamed mostly on large plantation companies' slash-and-burn land clearing methods -- have spread quickly over the last three months, while the prolonged dry season and faster trade winds blowing across the archipelago have worsened the situation.

According to the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, the rainy season in most parts of the country, including the worst fire- stricken provinces of Sumatra and Kalimantan, will only arrive in November. (aan)