Indonesian Police Arrest 72 Suspects as Forest and Peatland Fires Blanket Region in Haze
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities have arrested 72 people suspected of igniting forest and peatland fires that have sent a choking plume of haze across parts of Borneo and Sumatra, and into neighboring Malaysia.
The arrests, announced Sunday, are tied to 89 forest and land fire cases spread across five provinces on Borneo and four on Sumatra. National Police special crimes director Mohammad Irhamni said most of those detained are accused of deliberately setting terrain ablaze to clear land for plantations at a fraction of the cost of mechanical clearing.
“We will not stop at the perpetrators on the ground,” Irhamni told a news conference in Jakarta. “We will determine who benefited from these activities and who was ultimately behind them.”
Investigators, he said, are tracing financial records to see whether companies financed or ordered the land clearing, suggesting the case may expand beyond the initial round of arrests. Suspects face charges carrying penalties that range from heavy fines to as many as 15 years in prison.
The fires have bloomed in a year of intensifying El Niño and an unusually prolonged dry season. Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, or BNPB, said smoke from the blazes has crossed borders, repeating a familiar pattern that has long strained Indonesia’s relations with its neighbors.
Environment officials recorded more than 3,700 hot spots Sunday in the Indonesian part of Borneo, the world’s third-largest island, shared with Malaysia and Brunei. South Sumatra counted more than 1,700 hot spots the same day, with visibility in some areas falling to just 10 meters (33 feet) as haze settled over the region.
BNPB chief Suharyanto said wildfire activity has increased in West, Central and South Kalimantan, where deep layers of peat can turn even smoldering remains into stubborn underground fires. “Land that appears extinguished on the surface may still contain embers underneath, so sufficient rainfall is crucial to rewet the peat and fully suppress the fires,” said Suharyanto, who uses one name.
Cloud-seeding operations were stepped up over Kalimantan on Sunday, with 30 helicopters assigned to water-bombing and aerial patrols there and another 22 covering Sumatra. The efforts are aimed at easing a seasonal crisis that carries significant health and economic costs for Indonesia and the wider region.
Malaysia, a long-time recipient of drifting smoke from Indonesian fires, has been hit especially hard this year. The eastern state of Sarawak recorded one district with “very unhealthy” air on Friday and eight others with unhealthy readings, prompting authorities to close nearly 600 schools and affecting roughly 200,000 students.
The pattern is familiar to those who study transboundary haze in Southeast Asia: fires are set to clear land cheaply, then spread quickly when dry weather and drained peatlands make the landscape highly combustible. Police say the practice is common among plantation companies and small-scale farmers alike, and that holding more powerful backers accountable will be key to breaking it.