Hundreds of fires rage across Indonesia
Pastor Dale Morgan
Hundreds of fires rage across Indonesia*
JAKARTA, Sept 2 (AFP) Sep 02, 2006
Hundreds of forest fires are raging across Indonesia, from the island of
Borneo to Maluku, eastern Indonesia, during the country's "fire season",
a forestry official said Saturday.
Nearly 1,800 hotspots have been detected said Johnie Hadi Prakoso, an
official from the Forestry Ministry in Jakarta.
"It's very dry and there is no rain, so the farmers in the fields,
sometimes illegal farmers and sometimes companies start fires," he said.
"Every year from June to August is fire season."
Prakoso said that 90 percent of hotspots - areas with high ground
temperatures detected by a heat sensitive satellite - are forest fires.
Earlier this week Friends of the Earth Indonesia accused 178 companies
of starting fires in Indonesian Borneo and the island of Sumatra.
On Friday Indonesian police chief General Sutanto ordered all regional
police heads to investigate the allegations.
Burning in Indonesia and some parts of Malaysia to clear land for crops
causes an annual haze that smothers parts of Malaysia, Singapore and
Thailand as well as Indonesia itself.
Indonesia's neighbours have urged Jakarta to prevent the annual forest
clearing burn-offs, warning that it is hurting business and putting off
tourists.
The Indonesian government has outlawed land clearing by fire but weak
enforcement means the ban is largely ignored.