Indonesia Charges 47 Firms for Sumatra Fires
9/16/99
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Title: Indonesia Charges 47 Firms for Fires
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: September 16, 1999
JAKARTA, Indonesia, September 16, 1999 (ENS) - Legal action has been
taken against 47 companies for starting forest fires in the province
of Riau in central Sumatra, a local news report said Wednesday.
The police now have files on the companies they are using to prepare
the cases for the state attorney's office.
Thirty companies are accused of starting forest fires this year,
while 17 companies will prosecuted for starting fires in 1997 and
1998, the Suara Pembaruan daily said. The paper quoted the Riau
province forestry office head, Darminto Sutono.
Thirty-nine palm oil plantation operators and three forestry
concession holders are being prosecuted, said Sutono.
Since fires that lasted for months during 1997 and 1998 covered
Southeast Asia with a blanket of thick, choking smoke, Indonesia has
been trying to enforce a zero-burning policy, banning the practice of
land clearing with fire. The subsurface soils of much of Indonesia
are peatlike, struck through with coal seams, making fires extremely
difficult if not impossible to extinguish.
Already this year a marine collison that killed 10 men has been
blamed on low visibility caused by the smoky fires.
Sutono said July and August fires in Riau province on the island of
Sumatra had burned over 5,700 hectares (1,400 acres) of forest and
brush.