Warships ready to move people affected by haze in Indonesia

JAKARTA—Indonesia has put warships on standby to evacuate people affected by acrid haze from forest fires that have killed at least 10 people and caused respiratory illnesses in half a million, officials said on Saturday.

For nearly two months, thousands of fires caused by slash-and-burn farming in Indonesia have choked vast expanses of Southeast Asia, forcing schools to close and scores of flights and some international events to be canceled.

The government has decided to send ships to evacuate victims, especially children and women, if necessary, with two warships deployed to Kalimantan on Friday and another carrying medical workers and health equipment expected on Saturday.

A military spokesperson, Tatang Sulaiman, said the warships, which will be standing by in Banjarmasin, the capital of south Kalimantan, could serve as evacuation centers and hospitals.

“The ships are sent just in case children or pregnant women must be relocated from the local health facilities, it does not mean everyone would be put into the ships,” Tatang said.

“So far health facilities on the ground in Kalimantan are still trying their best, we are just getting ready by deploying warships,” Tatang said.

Each warship can accommodate up to 2,000 people and has 344 beds on board.

Aircraft deployed

The government has deployed around 30 aircraft to fight the fires and for cloud seeding with 22,000 troops on the ground to combat the blazes.

The Indonesian disaster mitigation agency spokesperson, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said the fires had killed 10 people so far in Sumatra and Kalimantan, some fighting the blazes while others died of respiratory illnesses or medical conditions exacerbated by the pollution.

The agency estimated at least half a million people have suffered from respiratory illness since the fires started in July and 43 million people have been affected in the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Nugroho said the figure was likely just the tip of the iceberg because many people did not go to health facilities for treatment.

More than 1.7 million hectares of land has been burned and six provinces severely affected by the haze, according to Indonesia’s forestry ministry.

“This is due to human acts because 99 percent of forest fires were started deliberately. This is an extraordinary crime against humanity,” Nugroho said.

Other countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Japan have sent assistance to help Indonesia fight the forest fires.

Asean action urged

Singapore on Sunday urged fellow Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) members to take “firm and decisive action” against the lethal haze still spreading across the region ahead of a group summit in Malaysia next month.

“The Asean must take firm and decisive action, through enhanced regional cooperation, to help prevent the recurrence of this transboundary problem,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement after Singaporean troops and firefighters returned from an assistance mission in Sumatra.

“Singapore will work closely with other Asean countries to fully operationalize the Asean Haze Monitoring System, and other cooperative initiatives,” it said.

Leaders of the 10-member Asean will hold a summit in Kuala Lumpur on Nov. 19 before expanding to meet their counterparts from key trading partners in the following two days.

The agenda of the summit has not been made public, but diplomatic sources say the haze is likely to be raised by member countries affected by the pollution.

The ministry said Singapore would pursue legal action against “errant companies responsible for the haze” and called on Indonesia to respond to “our repeated requests to share information” on the firms.

Paper and palm oil firms have been blamed for deliberately setting off fires to clear land—including flammable peat-rich terrain—for cultivation, a traditional practice aggravated this year by drier-than-usual conditions due to the El Niño weather phenomenon.

Singapore last month launched legal action that could lead to massive fines against Indonesian companies.

Five Indonesian companies including multinational Asia Pulp and Paper, part of the Sinar Mas conglomerate, have been served with legal notices. AFP