Indonesian fires bringing haze back to Southeast Asia

Indonesian fires bringing haze back to Southeast Asia

By Juergen Dauth

HONG KONG: The feared and terrible haze which settled over much of Southeast Asia like a smoggy blanket two years ago is now threatening to make a reappearance in the region.

And, as in 1997, the cause is huge fires in Indonesia which were deliberately set to clear forests and bush.

Singapore and the southern part of Malaysia are already reporting a much higher than normal level of air pollution. Large clouds of ash are spreading out from Kalimantan, the Indonesian region which occupies most of the island of Borneo, and being carried across the sea to the neighboring countries.

Villagers near the Kalimantan town of Palangkaraya say the huge fires burning nearby were set for land-clearing purposes, and in many cases have burned out of control.

Making the situation worse is the high concentration of peat just under the surface, which allows the fires to continue burning underground even when determined fire-fighting efforts are made.

The huge blazes of 1997 destroyed more than one million hectares of forest in Kalimantan and on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, causing a huge smog cloud which jeopardized air and sea traffic -- not to mention the health of millions of people -- as far away as Thailand and the Philippines.

Then, Indonesia's neighbors remained polite and diplomatic, although they did coax out of the Jakarta government a promise to stop the use of fires for land clearance. But while appropriate laws were passed, enforcement remained weak and no one has been prosecuted.

Now, taking advantage of the deep political crisis in the country, planters are putting ever-larger tracts of forest to the torch.

This is perhaps not surprising: Indonesia has said it wants to double the area devoted to palm oil production to seven million hectares by next year, and such a huge amount of territory could never be cleared so fast using conventional methods. Fire is the only way.

Yet neighboring countries, especially wealthy Singapore and Malaysia, have run out of patience. At a crisis meeting three weeks ago in Brunei, an immensely rich oil-producing sultanate perched on the northern coast of Borneo, they gave the Indonesians an ultimatum.

Get the fires under control by July at the latest, they were told, or aid destined to help Indonesia's crisis-wracked economy would be frozen.

-- Frankfurter Rundschau