ASEAN seeks action against culprits behind RI fires
ASEAN seeks action against culprits behind RI fires
M. Jegathesan, Agence France-Presse/Kuala Lumpur
ASEAN officials on Wednesday pressed for tough action against those responsible for forest fires in Indonesia which have sent a choking haze over Malaysia and Thailand in recent weeks.
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) senior officials meeting in Malaysia's northern Penang island warned that dry weather and monsoon winds meant the smog could worsen if the fires were not controlled.
"The senior officials reiterated the need for stringent enforcement actions against errant parties who set fires indiscriminately," they said in a statement from the three-day talks, which were scheduled before the crisis erupted. The officials also called for "full disclosure and sharing of information on errant parties."
Indonesian officials at the meeting which began on Tuesday said the forest fires had been brought under control, but said they would welcome ASEAN's assistance in tackling future blazes.
Malaysia on Monday deployed 125 firefighters to battle hundreds of fires on Sumatra island which last week smothered Kuala Lumpur and surrounding districts as well as the west coast where pollution reached extremely hazardous levels.
Shifting winds brought relief to those areas over the weekend, but pushed the problem north to regions along the Malaysia- Thailand border and onto the Thai island of Phuket.
Malaysia and Indonesia have been trading accusations of blame over the forest fires.
Indonesia's forestry ministry said on Monday that eight out of 10 plantation firms accused of burning to clear land for cultivation are Malaysian-owned.
But Malaysian Plantations Minister Peter Chin said on Tuesday after talks with 18 firms operating there that they all denied using slash-and-burn techniques.
"They have given me a reasonable explanation and I am quite happy with that," Chin said, adding that he had not received any solid proof from Indonesian authorities on the involvement of Malaysian companies.
The officials called for concerted measures by ASEAN countries to fight the forest fires because drier weather conditions with below average rainfall could be expected in parts of Sumatra and Borneo island until October.
"The prevailing winds will continue to transport any smoke haze to the region should fires occur in the area," they said.
Greenpeace on Wednesday called on the Indonesian government to establish a moratorium on new logging and land-clearing operations on Sumatra as well as fire-prone Kalimantan islands.
It said that environmental groups had reported more than 1,700 fires in Sumatra's Riau province alone, and that most of them were located in logging concessions and timber plantations.
Greenpeace said that even as it claimed to be serious about tackling the problem, Indonesia was encouraging new pulp and paper investments which would be associated with forest destruction and fires.
"ASEAN cannot turn a blind eye on the forest fires and the destruction that is happening in Indonesia's remaining ancient forests. There must be concrete action," said its regional forest campaigner, Hapsoro.
Malaysia and Singapore have both called for a more coordinated response from ASEAN on the annual haze situation, which in 1997- 98 cost the region some US$9.0 billion by disrupting air travel and other business activities.
The officials said that the 10-nation group's environment ministers had agreed to establish a panel of experts on fire and haze which could rapidly assess outbreaks and make recommendations on how to deal with them.