Subject: Haze Again Blankets Southeast Asia
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8/9/99
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE
Many experts expect forest fires in Indonesia this year to be bigger
than that in 1997, which destroyed at least 5 million hectares of forest
with an economic loss of about 4 billion U.S. dollars. The woefully
inadequate response to the crisis is made apparent by President
Habibie's placing blame on El Nino as the primary cause of these
recurrent blazes, rather than accepting responsibility and addressing
the effects of decades of inappropriate tropical land management.
Extensive and intensive industrial management and clearing of primary
tropical rainforests have made conditions ripe for eventual ecological
Armageddon. Continuing economic, political and social turmoil in
Indonesia is emblematic of the same malady-- failure to pursue an
appropriate and non-Western development model for sustainability under
tropical conditions. An Indonesian environmental group is calling for
Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei to take Indonesia to court for this
year's smoke cloud.
g.b.
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ITEM #1
Title: Haze Blankets Southeast Asia
Source: Associated Press
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 4, 1999
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Out-of-control forest fires on Sumatra
island spewed out a thick haze Wednesday over the South Pacific
nation, slowing air and sea traffic while pushing air pollution to
dangerous levels.
Smoke from the dry-season fires choked shipping traffic through the
busy Straight of Malacca, which separates Sumatra from Singapore and
Malaysia.
Low visibility caused some domestic flights to be diverted, said local
transportation department chief Ismanu, who goes by only one name.
The island's Riau province, which has been covered in clouds of smoke
for several months, declared a state of emergency on Wednesday.
Visibility in the provincial capital of Pekanbaru was less than 200
yards, and health officials warned people to stay indoors because of
dangerous pollution levels. Only residents wearing face masks ventured
into the city's otherwise deserted and blackened streets.
Malaysia's official news agency, Bernama, reported that Malaysia,
Singapore and Brunei had formally urged Indonesia to check the
spreading fires and avert a regional crisis.
In 1997, blazes on Borneo and Sumatra swept out control, and a huge
smoke cloud paralyzed the region for several weeks.
Environmentalists accuse farmers and developers of setting huge tracts
of forest land on fire during the dry season.
One Indonesian environmental group, Walhi, warned Wednesday that this
year's fires could dwarf the ``tragedy'' of 1997. The group said at
least 441 fires were now burning on Sumatra and Borneo.
ITEM #2
Title: Indonesian President Warns of Danger of Forest Fires
Source: Xinhua
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 5, 1999
JAKARTA, August 5 (Xinhua)-- Indonesian president B.J. Habibie
Thursday warned the public of the danger of forest fires resulting
from the El Nino weather phenomenon which is now occurring according
to shorter cycles and accompanied by prolonged drought.
In the past, El Nino was happening once every 30 or 50 years but now
it is doing so at a higher frequency, Habibie said in Samarinda,
capital of East Kalimantan province, Antara news Agency reported.
Habibie said that at least 99 percent of forest fires occurring in
Indonesia were man-made with 33 percent of them caused specifically by
burning cigarettes.
He urged the people to learn a lesson from these facts and act more
responsibly to prevent forest fires.
Reports said smoke from forest and plantation fires has begun to
darken the skies over some parts of Riau in Sumatra and Kalimantan
islands in Indonesia since the dry season began in July.
In Pekanbaru, provincial capital of Riau province, smog became thicker
Wednesday, causing visibility in the city to drop to only 100 to 200
meters.
Some experts said this year's forest fires may be bigger than that in
1997 when forest fires raged in many parts of the islands of Sumatra
and Kalimantan.
The 1997 fires destroyed about 5 million hectares of forest in the
country with an economic loss of about 4 billion U.S. dollars.
East Kalimantan Governor Suwarna Adulfatah said the weather phenomena
in 1997-98 had caused 520,000 forest fires and 124,000 hectares of
crop failures.
In addition, in 1999, there were 48,250 families in East Kalimantan
still living under the poverty line, he said.
According another report, the Japan International Cooperation Agency
has sent a team to help put out the forest fires raging in Riau.
ITEM #3
Title: Experts Call For Indonesia To Face Court Over Smog
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 7, 1999
Byline: Claudia Gazzini
JAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Sumatra residents wore masks to keep
out a choking smog from forest fires Friday, as environmental monitors
called for Indonesia to face an international court over what is
becoming an annual disaster.
An official at an Indonesian environmental watchdog called on
Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei to take Indonesia to court for this
year's smoke cloud, which has blanketed much of Southeast Asia in a
scene reminiscent of 1997's tragedy.
Severe fires that year, mainly lit by farmers and logging companies
clearing land, caused a choking smog that smothered Indonesia's
neighbors, damaging tourism and sending visibility plunging.
Most of the smoke came from Sumatra and Indonesia's Borneo provinces.
In Brunei, on Borneo's northwest coast, organizers fear the smog will
spoil the Southeast Asian games, which start in the oil-rich sultanate
Saturday.
Smog has blanketed Brunei for several days this week, concerning teams
from the 10 competing nations but by Friday the sky was relatively
clear.
Forestry experts said this year's fires in the Indonesian part of
Borneo were spreading rapidly and the situation there could soon be
worse than in Sumatra. Fires were also reported in Sarawak, on the
Malaysian part of Borneo.
``Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei have to think about taking Indonesia
to the International Court of Justice for the lack in its political
awareness,'' said Longgena Ginting, co-ordinator for forest advocacy
at the independent Walhi watchdog.
He accused Jakarta of doing nothing to curb the fires and condemned
its policy of clearing forest land for plantations.
``The government must declare that land clearing has to stop.''
Friday, light rains slowed the spread of the fires in Sumatra. But
experts said that rain was unlikely to put the fires out because the
temperature of the flames was too high, exceeding 1,832 degrees
Fahrenheit in some areas.
Satellite images showed less than 200 hotspots in Sumatra -- each
representing an area of fire. Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of
Borneo, was covered in cloud which hindered satellite imagery, but
environmental watchdogs said they believed the fires were spreading
rapidly, aided by the dry season there.
In the most badly affected area, Sumatra's Riau province, many
residents wore masks. In Minas town, about 570 miles northwest of
Jakarta, residents said the smog enveloped most parts of the town till
noon.
``Last week the smog would go away by around nine but for the past few
days it stays on the ground until midday,'' one government official
told Reuters by telephone.
He added the situation was reminiscent of 1997's fire disaster.
Prevailing winds have blown the smoke from Riau and surrounding areas
east to nearby Singapore and peninsular Malaysia.
Shipping sources in Singapore and Malaysia said smog was a major
potential problem. Visibility could be reduced to a only a few hundred
meters, similar to 1997's levels.
``In a narrow strait, especially the Malacca Strait, it can be a
problem,'' a maritime expert in Malaysia said.
If the smog becomes thick again, shipping authorities would not be
able to do much more than issue warnings to ships navigating the
strait, the expert said.
In Malaysia, opposition politicians decried a government decision not
to release details of the Air Pollution Index, used to measure air
quality.
Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding has shrugged off the criticism and
accused foreign news organizations of using the data to scare away
tourists.
Experts say that although a lot of changes have been made on paper
from the great fires of 1997 and 1998, implementation on the grounds
remains weak. A lot of half-burned vegetation is providing easy fuel
as the dry season goes on.
Experts have forecast the fires could go on till October, when the dry
season is due to end, and have accused the government of President
B.J. Habibie of being preoccupied with his bid for a second term as
president.
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