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