Indonesian authorities have arrested eight farmers for
setting illegal fires on Sumatra island to clear land after numerous
blazes created a thick haze choking parts of Indonesia, Singapore and
Malaysia, police said on Tuesday.
The farmers were
arrested on Monday and Tuesday after being caught “red-handed”, said
local police spokesman Lt. Col. Hermansyah. He did not say whether they
were employed by some companies that have been accused of deliberately
starting the fires.
About 1,100 residents were
forced to flee Rantau Bais and Bangko Pusako villages in Riau province
on Tuesday as acrid smoke from nearby burning peat swamps and palm oil
plantations made breathing difficult, Mr. Hermansyah said.
“The smoke has hurt their throats and eyes”, Mr. said Hermansyah. “Visibility there is really bad.”
A
day after apologising to neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia,
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono deployed 2,000 additional
personnel on Tuesday to fight the fires that have affected air quality
and caused respiratory problems among some people. He has called for an
investigation, but said it appeared the fires were being caused by
natural and human factors.
Indonesia’s environmental
minister, Balthasar Kambuaya, told reporters on Sunday that authorities
were investigating eight plantation companies that may have started the
fires.
Riau forestry official Ahmad Saeroji
estimated the burned area was around 2,000 hectares. Satellite pictures
have detected about 200 fires on plantations in the area.
Authorities
warned motorists and fishermen in parts of the province to stay home
this week due to poor visibility from the haze. However, the National
Disaster Mitigation Agency reported that it was raining in the
provincial capital of Pekanbaru and in several hotspots after the
government deployed aircraft for cloud seeding.
Each
year, forest fires on Sumatra and Borneo islands smother parts of
nearby Singapore and Malaysia in haze. The Indonesian government usually
blames plantation owners and traditional farmers for illegally setting
fires as a cheap way to clear land.
source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/indonesia-arrests-8-in-fires-causing-choking-haze/article4850021.ece
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