Malaysia, RI to fight forest fires

Malaysia, RI to fight forest fires

Eileen Ng, Agence-France Presse, Johannesburg

Malaysia will send a technical team to neighboring Indonesia to
develop a framework to tackle forest fires that have blanketed
parts of Southeast Asia with choking smog, a minister said here
Thursday.

Malaysian Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding said he met his
Indonesian counterpart Nabiel Makarim on Tuesday on the sidelines
of the Earth Summit to voice concern over fresh fires in
Indonesia's Borneo and Sumatra islands blamed on illegal loggers
and farmers.

Law last month wrote a letter to Makarim to complain about the
annual haze hazard, which has also hit Brunei, Singapore and
Thailand.

"I repeated Malaysia's concerns but they have their own
national problems. There is no workable mechanism in Indonesia to
tackle the fires and they are short of resources and manpower,"
Law said.

"I briefly outlined Malaysia's experience and they suggested
we form a technical committee to go to Indonesia, to go to the
ground to find out how we can formulate the best framework for
them and make it workable."

Law said Malaysia's experience in tackling serious haze
pollution in 1997-98 largely due to the Indonesia fires showed
that it "need not be very expensive" if a proper structure was
put into place.

"Malaysia's plan of action is workable. We are not saying it's
100 percent effective but at least we know what's happening on
the ground and we can control the problem," he said.

Nabiel, who has defended Indonesia's handling of the problem,
would visit Kuala Lumpur in two weeks' time to discuss further
details, he said, adding that he had also informed Brunei and
Singapore about the plan.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi met with
Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri during a round-table
session at the summit Tuesday but there were no bilateral talks
between the two leaders, officials said.

Abdullah took up the issue when he expressed Malaysia's
concern about the regular occurrence of forest fires and
transboundary haze, which he said caused "massive environmental
and economic losses."

Abdullah, who will succeed Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
when he steps down in October next year, called on the
international community "to assist by building capacity and
transferring technology on fire prevention and control".

Southeast Asia has been battling the smog problem annually
since 1997 when parts of the region were blanketed for months,
causing serious health problems and economic losses estimated at
US$9.3 billion (9.6 billion euros).

Although this year's haze is less serious than in 1997-98,
Indonesia is still under pressure from its neighbors to act.

Hundreds of Indonesian schools have been closed, flights have
been disrupted and many residents of Kalimantan and Sumatra
islands have donned masks before venturing out, as pollution has
hit dangerous levels in some provinces.