Haze crisis ‘a crime against humanity’

JAKARTA — Forest and land fires in Indonesia contributing to the region’s worst haze crisis in years is “a crime against humanity of extraordinary proportions”, said the spokesman for Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

Since “99 per cent” of the fires were lit intentionally, the haze crisis should be considered a man-made disaster, BMKG spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho added in a press release on Saturday. “But now is not the time to point fingers but to focus on how we can deal with this quickly,” he said.

Mr Sutopo’s comments came a day after BMKG’s Sub-Division Head for Information, Hari Tirto, said declining visibility in the capital city was nothing to be worried about.

South-east Asia has suffered for years from annual haze caused by forest and peat clearing across Indonesia and the fires this year have been helped by drier weather brought by the El Nino weather phenomenon, pushing air pollution to hazardous levels across the region.

Based on BMKG’s analysis, more than 43 million Indonesians have been exposed to smog in Sumatra and Kalimantan this year. On Saturday, BMKG said that satellite images show parts of the Greater Jakarta region are now also affected.

So far, at least 10 people have died from exposure to the haze in Sumatra and Kalimantan, the hardest-hit parts of Indonesia where the government is struggling to contain the fires.

Mr Sutopo said several people died during efforts to extinguish the flames while others fell gravely ill and died suffering from acute respiratory infections. This does not include seven hikers who were killed in a forest fire on Mount Lawu in East Java on Oct 18.

More than 500,000 cases of acute respiratory tract infections due to the haze have been reported in Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, and West, Central and South Kalimantan in the period from July 1 till Oct 23, the BMKG spokesman added.

Mr Sutopo stressed that these were only the recorded cases, so the extent of suffering in these six provinces, where a state of emergency has been declared, is likely to be much higher.

Indonesia is preparing warships as a last resort to evacuate children and others suffering from smoke inhalation from slash-and-burn fires, a minister said on Friday. AGENCIES