Govt vows to prosecute 10 firms over forest fires

Govt vows to prosecute 10 firms over forest fires

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government promised on Monday to prosecute 10 plantation
companies -- eight of them Malaysian -- accused of burning
forests on Sumatra island, causing a choking haze over parts of
the neighboring country.

"The Office of the State Minister for the Environment is
currently investigating the companies. The ministry will soon
file pollution charges against them," Minister of Forestry Malam
Sambat Kaban said at the Presidential Office in Jakarta on
Monday.

He said the 10 companies were accused of deliberately setting
fires to clear the land to open oil palm plantations.

Kaban said the eight accused Malaysian companies had
concessions for more than 200,000 hectares of land in Sumatra.

The government has outlawed the clearing of land by burning
but often fails to prosecute or imprison plantation owners and
logging firms accused of violating the law.

Officials have frequently vowed to bring companies to court
but no action has ever been taken, and the fires eventually are
extinguished with the arrival of the rainy season.

Environmentalists said the real test would come when the
companies were brought to court, and urged the government to
release the names of the 10 firms.

"It is a good start," Nazir Foead of the World Wide Fund for
Nature Indonesia said as quoted by AP. "A year ago, 10 companies
were investigated for illegal burning but the cases disappeared
into thin air. When the fires are gone and the rainy season
comes, I hope there will be the same commitment and eagerness to
enforce the law."

Noxious haze from the Sumatra forest fires has covered parts
of Malaysia since last week, sparking mounting anger among
residents there, as the smoke has disrupted their daily
activities.

Kaban said data from the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in
Polonia Medan, North Sumatra, indicated the number of hot spots
in Sumatra had decline from about 700 last week to 300 in the
past two days.

To put out the blazes, Kaban said Indonesia and Malaysia would
try and induce rain next week in North Sumatra and Riau, the two
provinces worst affected by the fires.

"Aside from deploying firefighters to the affected areas, we
are going to jointly make rain next week. Malaysia will also send
special machines to clear land without burning," he said.