ASEAN ministers plan talks as haze lingers

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11: Southeast Asian ministers will meet soon to discuss ways to help Indonesia extinguish forest and brush fires causing a thick smog blanketing the region, according to officials.

Malaysia got a slight breather from the haze yesterday as air pollution levels fell, with environmental officials saying pollution was at unhealthy levels in just two areas after a sharp rise at the weekend.

Environment ministers from the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations could gather in Singapore as early as this week to try to help Indonesia put out the fires and prevent them recurring in future, a Malaysian government official said.

Malaysia's Environment Minister Azmi Khalid is expected to attend the meeting, the official added.

Forest fires are burning mainly in Indonesia's part of Borneo island and on Sumatra island, also in Indonesia. Most are deliberately lit. Each dry season, forest is illegally torched to clear land for agriculture, blanketing Southeast Asia in smog.

But farmers are also using traditional slash-and-burn methods to clear or rejuvenate land.

Major fires in Indonesia in 1997-98 cost local economies billions of dollars and left many people ill. The fires over that period destroyed five million hectares -- about the size of Costa Rica.

Malaysia fears the haze could hit tourism and businesses if Indonesia does not stamp out the fires soon.

Malaysia's largest opposition party, the mainly Chinese Democratic Action Party, handed a protest note to officials of the Indonesian embassy on Kuala Lumpur yesterday, urging Jakarta to stop the burning.

''On behalf of 26 million Malaysians, the DAP expresses the burning anger of our sufferings caused by the annual haze disaster befalling our region,'' the party said.

''Malaysians have died in accidents caused by poor visibility.

Many will die due to air pollution.'' Galvanised by the 1997-98 fires, Southeast Asian countries signed the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in 2002, but Indonesia has yet to ratify the pact.

''Refusal to ratify is incomprehensible, irresponsible and an unfriendly act,'' the DAP added.

Indonesia says the bill is pending approval in parliament.

It is illegal to carry out slash-and-burn land clearing in Indonesia, but prosecutions take time and few have stuck.

Local sources also point to limited government budgets and difficulty enforcing national policy locally. However, more power has been given to provinces since the fall of strongman Suharto in 1998.

REUTERS