Jakarta Globe, June 24, 2013
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| Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono gestures while Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo and First Lady Ani Yudhoyono look on during a visit aboard Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior ship, which was anchored in Jakarta on June 7. (AFP Photo) |
President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has offered a formal apology to Singapore and Malaysia
for the haze that has been blanketing both countries as a result of forest
fires in Riau.
The
president blamed the forest fires on both humans and nature, saying the winds
in Sumatra that were headed towards Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines had
contributed to the thick haze.
“For this
incident, I as the president would like to apologize especially to Singapore
and Malaysia and hope they would understand. Indonesia did not want this to
happen and we are trying to overcome this responsibly,” said Yudhoyono in a
press conference at the State Palace on Monday.
Yudhoyono
also criticized the Riau administration for its slow response to anticipating
the haze from the beginning and called on provinces prone to forest fires to
focus on containing fires in their respective areas.
“To be
honest, I think Riau was quite slow in anticipating this from the beginning.
But there’s no need to play the blame game. Let’s just [work] to overcome the
haze and fires immediately,” he said.
Earlier,
the president took to Twitter to say he would take strict action against
companies involved in burning forests to clear land for new plantation areas.
“Indonesia
will seriously overcome the forest fires in Riau and will take stern action
against foreign companies that were involved,” the president tweeted on Monday.
Yudhoyono
said the government was still working hard to contain the fire, adding the
forest fires in Riau not only caused haze at home but also in neighboring
countries Singapore and Malaysia.
Both
neighboring countries have lodged protests and offered help to contain the
forest fires.
Yudhoyono said efforts to
contain fires from the land turned out to be ineffective and that’s why the government had
deployed helicopters.
“The
government is deploying two Bolco helicopters and one Colibri helicopter to
contain hotspots in Riau. The efforts through land have been ineffective,” he
said.
Minister of
Environment Balthasar Kambuanya previously said there were indications that
eight Malaysian-owned companies were involved in setting off fires to open new
plantation areas in Riau.
The eight
companies implicated are Langgam Inti Hiberida, Bumi Rakksa Sejati, Tunggal
Mitra Plantation, Udaya Loh Dinawi, Adei Plantation, Jatim Jaya Perkasa, Multi
Gambut Industri, and Mustika Agro Lestari.
The
Forestry Ministry and the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) as well as
other related ministries had sent teams to the fields to ensure efforts to
contain the fires were successful and to take legal measures against people or
companies that violated regulations to start a fire to clear lands.
Meanwhile, Sime Darby Plantation denied that its subsidiaries in
Indonesia were involved in the fire.
“There have
been no area-expansion activities in the operational areas of Tunggal Mitra
Plantation, and Bhumireksa Nusa Sejati in Riau since April 2013.
This needs to be emphasized given the planting process of oil palm trees
can only be done every
20 to 25 years, not every year,” said Inasanti Susanto, head of Minamas
Plantation Corporate Communications in a press release on Monday.
Inasanti
said Sime Darby Plantation strictly adopts a zero burning policy in its
operational areas and the policy has been implemented since 1985.
However, Inasanti admitted a small portion of its plantation areas were
inhabited by local residents to comply with Indonesian laws that require companies to protect local residents who lived around the
operational areas.
Riau Police
said it has arrested two people suspected of setting of fire in Riau, including
a former Bank Rakyat Indonesia official identified as HP.
“One of them , S (64), a resident at Rupat Utara, Bengkalis, is being
processed by the Bengkalis Police and the other one is HP (56), a Rokan Ilir
resident.
‘‘They
cleared the land by starting fires,” said National Police spokesman Sr Comr
Agus Rianto at the National Police headquarters in Jakarta on Monday.
Agus said that both men were farmers and were not related to any
companies.
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