Indonesian authorities have arrested 72 people suspected of deliberately starting forest and peatland fires as huge blazes in central and western parts of the country sent thick, choking haze across Indonesia and into neighbouring Malaysia.
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The arrests are linked to 89 suspected forest and land fire cases being investigated across nine provinces, police said on Sunday. The cases are spread across five provinces on the island of Borneo and four on Sumatra.
Mohammad Irhamni, director of special crimes at Indonesia's National Police Criminal Investigation Agency, said most of the suspects were accused of deliberately burning land to clear areas for plantations at a lower cost. Police are also examining whether companies financed or ordered the burning.
“We will not stop at the perpetrators on the ground,” Irhamni said at a news conference in Jakarta. “We will determine who benefited from these activities and who was ultimately behind them.”
The suspects face charges carrying hefty fines and prison sentences of up to 15 years. Police said the cases involved a total of more than 1,000 hectares of burned land in the cases under investigation.
The fires have been worsened by a prolonged dry season and an intensifying El Niño pattern. Peatland fires are particularly difficult to extinguish because flames can continue burning beneath the surface even after they appear to have been put out.
President Prabowo Subianto visited Central Kalimantan on Saturday, where more than 7,600 hectares have reportedly burned. He pledged government resources, including helicopters and water pumps, to tackle the fires and said companies found responsible would be held accountable.
“I hope we can control this soon,” Prabowo said, adding that Indonesia had overcome more severe forest and land fires in the past.
Authorities recorded more than 3,700 hotspots across Borneo on Sunday, while more than 1,700 were detected in South Sumatra. In some parts of Sumatra, the haze reduced visibility to just 10 metres. Cloud-seeding operations and aerial firefighting were stepped up, with 52 helicopters deployed for water-bombing and patrol missions.
The smoke has also spread into Malaysia's Sarawak state, where air quality reached “very unhealthy” levels in one district. Nearly 600 schools were closed, affecting about 200,000 students, according to the Sarawak government.
Forest fires and the resulting haze are a recurring problem in Indonesia and have frequently strained relations with neighbouring countries.
