Indonesia asks for help over fires polluting region

PEKANBARU, Indonesia, Oct 13 (Reuters) Indonesia appealed for help today to fight forest and brush fires that have spread choking smoke over much of Southeast Asia as regional environment ministers prepare to meet for talks.

The ministers from Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei were due to hold talks later today in Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province, an area of Sumatra island badly affected by the raging fires.

Indonesia's neighbours have become increasingly frustrated over Jakarta's inability to deal with the annual dry season blazes, which in past weeks have caused serious air pollution across the region, particularly in Malaysia and Singapore.

''We are asking for assistance in terms of equipment or expertise. We will see what they can offer to us,'' Indonesian Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban told reporters.

Malaysia has proposed that the five countries buy two Russian-built Ilyushin aircraft designed to scoop up sea water and douse fires, Riau police chief Ito Sumardi told reporters.

The plan was for the planes, costing 90 million dollars each, to be placed in Sumatra and Kalimantan, also in Indonesia, he said.

Kaban said Indonesia hoped its neighbours would recognise the complexity of the problem and that officials would be invited to take part in a field trip tomorrow to view affected areas.

The fires, often started deliberately by farmers or big plantation businesses, have been burning for weeks in parts of Indonesia, creating a choking haze that has made many ill, shut airports and threatened wildlife in protected forests.

Kaban said more than 75 per cent of the fires were not in government-controlled forests but in plantations and farms belonging to private companies and local people.

He said that Central Kalimantan on the Indonesian part of Borneo island was the worst hit, with around 2.5 million acres of peat land in one area on fire. Peat fires are particularly hard to put out and can burn for months.

''This is where most smoke came from,'' Kaban said.

MASK-WEARING PROTESTERS Outside a hotel where senior officials were meeting to flesh out details for the ministerial meeting, about 20 environmental activists in face masks held a protest over the fires.

''Business people are receiving special treatment from the government while the people here and in neighbouring countries are suffering from the haze. This environmental disaster is an embarrassment for Indonesia,'' Johnny Mundong, head of the environmental group WALHI Riau, told Reuters.

Visibility in some areas of Indonesia was cut to 30 metres last week, forcing cars to use headlights, although there was only a slight haze over Pekanbaru today.

Sumardi said 70 people had been arrested over the fires, most of them workers in fields.

''But we are investigating three companies and our investigation is leading to the management of the companies.'' Indonesia bans slash-and-burn practices by farmers, timber firms and plantations. But prosecutions take time and few have stuck. Sumardi conceded that a lack of cash was hurting the investigations.

Under pressure from its neighbours, Indonesia said yesterday it would ratify a Southeast Asian pact that calls for regional cooperation to deal with the forest fires.

The Association of South East Asian Nations approved the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in 2002, but Indonesia's parliament has yet to ratify it, angering countries affected by the smoke, known as haze in the region.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has apologised to his neighbours for the haze, has pledged to use all resources available to put out the fires.

Severe fires and smog during a drought in 1997-98 made many people ill across a wide area of Southeast Asia, cost local economies billions of dollars and badly hit the tourism and airline sectors.

REUTERS SP HT1500