Indonesian police arrest 44 people suspected of starting forest fires

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities arrested 44 people suspected of starting some of the forest and peatland fires that are spreading health-damaging haze in the region, officials said Wednesday.

Forest and peat fires are an annual problem in Indonesia that strain relations with neighboring countries. In recent years, smoke from the fires has blanketed parts of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and southern Thailand.

The fires are often started illegally by plantation owners or traditional farmers to clear land for planting, said Suharyanto, who heads the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, or BNPB, in a statement on Wednesday.

“The forest fires are not caused only by drought, but also by humans,” said Suharyanto, who like many Indonesians uses only a single name. “Hopefully these arrests will serve as a deterrent to the public to stop setting fires to clear land.”

Police on Tuesday presented the suspects, including a woman, at the news conference in Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province. They were handcuffed and wearing orange prison uniforms.

Those arrested could be prosecuted under an environmental protection law that provides for a maximum 10-year prison sentence for setting fires to clear land, Suharyanto said.

He urged people to be pro-active in the government campaign to stop human-caused blazes and report anyone setting fires to clear land.

A number of areas in Riau province were still covered by thick haze, where Rokan Hilir and Rokan Hulu districts were the worst hit areas by fires that burned about 500 hectares (1,235 acres), resulting in heavy haze that reduced visibility to less than one kilometer (less than half a mile).

The government has stepped up its fire responses by spreading tons of salt on clouds to induce artificial rain in Riau since Tuesday, which will continue until July 25, Suharyanto said.

Tuesday’s arrests were not the first. In 2019 Indonesian police arrested 230 people linked to forest fires.

Forest fires on Sumatra and Borneo islands often break out during dry spells, smothering parts of nearby Singapore and Malaysia in haze.

In 2023, Indonesia which often sends apologies to its neighbors over the haze, denied that its fires were blanketing Malaysia with pollution.