EMERGENCY RESPONSE EXTENDED AS FOREST-FIRE SMOKE CHOKES RIAU'S PEOPLE by Fardah

    Jakarta, March 12, 2014 (Antara) - Hundreds of people poured onto Pekanbaru's streets on Monday (March 10) to protest against the forest-fire smoke that has been choking the people of Riau annually for the past 17 years.  
   "The haze problem has been endemic for 17 years, but there is no solution in sight. Therefore, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should be held responsible for the problem," Herry Budiman, the rally's field coordinator stated.

        Forest, plantation and peat-soil fires, mostly lit deliberately to illegally clear land for farming or plantation areas, occur every year in Riau Province, Sumatra Island, and have taken a toll on the health of residents, businesses, tourism industry, transportation, and school activities.  

   Many of Riau's people suffer from respiratory infection and have endured material losses due to the haze coming from the fires.

         Over the past two months, the menace has affected the health of more than 43.8 thousand residents, Zainal Arifin, the head of Riau's health office, noted recently.

         Of these, 38,424 suffered from acute respiratory system infection (ISPA), at least 2,021 suffered from skin irritation and 1,470 from asthma. It has also resulted in 1,344 Riau residents getting treated for eye irritation in public health centers, while about 811 suffered from pneumonia.

          The people's health has been deteriorating as the air quality level in Riau has been categorized as hazardous due to the smoke.

         According to Zainal Arifin, 10 Air Pollutant Standard Index (APSI) devices owned by PT Chevron Pacific CPI Rumai, recorded 359.3 PSI in Pekanbaru, 500 each in Minas, Siak, Duri Camp and Duri Field in the Bengkalis District, 391 in Dumai City, 348 in the Siak District, 434 in Kandis, 454 in Perawang, 500 each in Bangko and Libo.

          The air quality index above 300 PSI is categorized as hazardous to people's health, Arifin pointed out. 
     Global warming and the dry season have worsened the forest, plantation and peat-soil fires on Sumatra Island.

          Haze reduced the visibility in Pekanbaru to around 50 and 70 meters, disrupting flights to and from Riau as also school school activities.

         "The haze problem now is worse than that in 1997 which occurred for only one week. Currently, Pekanbaru has been covered by haze for over one month," Suliwanto, a local resident, stated on March 9.

          Hundreds of people, including NGO activists among others from Walhi, Jikalahari, Greenpeace, Mapala, Seruni, and WWF Riau, urged the authorities, particularly the police, attorney general officers and judges, to enforce laws consistently to prevent forest fires from occurring again.

          "As Indonesian citizens and Riau's inhabitants, we demand an apology from him (the President), the Riau administration, and the district/city administrations," Budiman stressed.

         "Law enforcers must be firm in imposing regulations transparently and fairly. They must protect the environment. The haze problem is worse than the eruptions of Mount Kelud and Mount Sinabung," he pointed out.

         The NOAA 18 satellite detected a total of 288 hotspots of forest, plantation and peatland fires across Sumatra Island on March 11, 2014.

         Of the 288 hotspots, 210 were detected in northern Sumatra and 78 in southern Sumatra, Hendra Suwarta of the Medan meteorological, climatology and geophysics agency (BMKG) stated here on Tuesday.

          In northern Sumatra, the hotspots were located in Aceh Province (39 hotspots), Riau (145), Riau Islands (four), and North Sumatra province (22).

           According to Chief of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Syamsul Maarif, around 99 percent of forest and plantation fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan were deliberately set.

         "There should be sanctions to stop recurrences. Slash-and-burn farming methods indeed exist in Sumatra and Kalimantan, but the most important thing is that it should be controlled," Syamsul Maarif noted in a statement on Feb. 28.

         On March 11, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for an immediate judicial process against the Riau forest fire suspects that have already been arrested.

          "I ask for immediate enforcement of the law and speedy judicial process of their case in a fair manner," he stated before a cabinet meeting in Jakarta.

          That way he hoped "there will be a deterrent effect and people will not be careless and burn forests irresponsibly causing problems to thousands of fellow citizens and disrupt flights and other activities."     
    Of the 11,138 hectares of forest and plantation and peat-soil area that were razed by fires across Riau, about 3 thousand hectares were located inside the Giam Siak Kecil-Bukit Batu (GSK-BB) biosphere reserve, which has been recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage site since 2009.

         Brigadier General Prihadi Agus Irianto, the head of the Riau Haze Disaster Response Task Force, confirmed that a military member was allegedly responsible for illegal logging and encroachment in the biosphere reserve in Riau.

           "The suspected army member had been arrested for illegal logging activities in the biosphere reserve," Brigadier General Irianto informed Antara, adding, "It is now time for us to speak about it openly because this 'sin' can no longer be forgiven."
     Prihadi, who is also the chief of the regional Wira Bima 031 Resort Military Command, added that the army member was Major Sergeant Sudigdo, who allegedly financed the illegal logging activities in the biosphere reserve.

           Sudigdo and his two workers were arrested in the operations led by Lt.Col. Asep Ridwan, the chief intelligence officer of the Wira Bima 031 Resort Military Command.

          A number of people have been arrested for allegedly burned the forest areas in Riau, and many other suspects are still being sought for the crime.

           The government of Riau province announced on March 12 that it extended the timeline for emergency response as the fire problem has been lingering on.

         "Emergency response will last for the next 14 days. The decision was made due to the worsening air pollution, caused by the forest fires, in a few cities and districts in Riau," Riau's Deputy Governor Abdul Latif stated.

           The Riau province has imposed an emergency response starting from February 26 to March 12.  
     The deputy governor added that during the next two weeks, the authorities will focus on extinguishing the fires through weather modification and water bombs.

          At least six tons of salt have been released to trigger rains, and water bombs have frequently been dropped by helicopters to extinguish the fires. ****3***
(f001/INE/o001)