FOREST-FIRE MAKERS TO FACE JAIL UNDER NEW ENVIRONMENT LAW

Jambi, July 25 (ANTARA) - Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said his office would not hesitate to arrest and send to prison the perpetrators of forest and land fires after the issuance of a new environment law next September.

He said here over the weekend the new law which would be issued on September 8, 2009 would give the authority to the office of the environment ministry to arrest the perpetrators of forest and land fires in the country.

"The office of the environment ministry has the authorities not only to coordinate with security officers but also to arrest directly those who burn forests and land bushes," he said.

He said that his office could directly fix police lines at the areas affected by fires and hand-cuff the perpetrators.

In the meantime, haze has begun this week to blanket a number of areas in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Haze and fog blanketed Pekanbaru city after the air over the Riau provincial capital was clear of haze due to heavy rainfall in the small hours of Sunday.

The dense haze and fog had prompted the attention of activists of the Tsu Chi Foundation in Pekanbaru. They went down into the streets distributing masks to passing motorists.

They also distributed the masks in residential complexes like Kuantan Jaya, in Pekanbaru city.

However, the heavy downpour on the small hours of Sunday cannot put out the flames raging in the peat land in Pekanbaru. Smoke was still seen billowing into the sky of Panam, Rumbai and Kulim.

Data of the Meteorology, Geophysics and Climatology Office (BMKG) of Pekanbaru, obtained from the monitoring by the NOAA 18 satellite, show that the forest and land fires were still raging in a number of areas in Riau province.

In Kalimantan, Indonesia is cooperating with Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam to protect Kalimantan (Borneo) through their 'Heart of Borneo (HOB)' program.

The 'Heart of Borneo' program was a natural resource conservation and sustainable utilization program, Hendrik Segah, HOB Coordinator of Central Kalimantan, said here on Friday.

The HOB program is aimed at protecting the sustainable utilization of one of the world's remaining best forests in Kalimantan for the welfare fo the current and future generations.