Malaysia urges drastic steps to end Indonesia's haze-causing forest fires

Malaysia urges drastic steps to end Indonesia's haze-causing forest
fires
By JIM GOMEZ, AP

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Malaysia urged its Southeast Asian neighbors
Tuesday to take more drastic steps to combat forest fires, particularly
Indonesia, where blazes last month produced smoke that smothered Kuala
Lumpur in a noxious haze.

"People in Malaysia are really getting very worried about this haze
episode. It blows every year and it's beyond our control," Sothinathan
Sinna, Malaysia's deputy environment minister, told reporters on the
sidelines of a meeting of environmental ministers and officials from
the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

"We want to make sure that more preventive measures be taken at the
source country," he said.

Sothinathan did not elaborate on strategies being discussed by the
ASEAN ministers, but suggested people should be banned from starting
fires during the dry season from May to September.

He also urged Indonesia to ratify a 2002 landmark agreement aimed at
preventing haze. The accord calls for a series of steps, including the
use of heat-sensing satellites and a crackdown on arsonists and
irresponsible plantation owners.

Smoke from Indonesian forest fires - most started as a cheap but
illegal way to clear land for plantations, mines and other industrial
operations - last month cloaked large parts of Malaysia including its
main city, Kuala Lumpur.

The annual fires have become a sensitive issue between Indonesia and
its neighbors, especially Malaysia and Singapore which blame air
traffic disruptions, health problems and damage to the crucial tourism
industry on haze caused by the fires.

Sothinathan said last month's haze was so bad that the government had
to declare a state of emergency in two areas, shutting down schools and
urging residents to remain indoors and away from the choking smoke for
three days.

Officials in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago struggling with poverty
and corruption, often say they cannot halt the burning due to a lack of
resources and personnel.

Indonesia claims that Malaysian plantation owners were behind some of
the fires that drift from its territory, across the narrow Malacca
Strait, to neighboring countries like Malaysia. Sothinathan said
Indonesia also should pursue illegal burners, including Malaysians.

The ASEAN ministers were expected to release a joint communique on
combatting haze pollution later Tuesday, Philippine environment
officials said.

The ministers also decided to establish the ASEAN Center for
Biodiversity, based in the Philippines, to coordinate efforts to save
the region's declining forest resources.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.


09/27/05 05:56 EDT


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