Singapore to host SE Asia haze summit on Friday
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-10-11 14:13
SINGAPORE - Southeast Asian environment ministers will meet in Singapore on
Friday to discuss ways to help Indonesia extinguish forest and brush fires
causing a thick smog blanketing the region.
Singapore's government said in a statement that its environment minister,
Yaacob Ibrahim, has invited his counterparts from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia
and Thailand to the city-state to help Indonesia douse the fires.
"The meeting will discuss urgent and long-term measures that the countries
could undertake to tackle the regional haze problem," it said.
In a separate statement on Wednesday, Singapore's ministry of foreign affairs
said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has written to Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono to "express his disappointment over the recurring haze
problem".
"Mr. Lee had also noted that while it may be too late this year to prevent
the fires that cause the haze, it was critical to take action now in order to
prevent future forest fires," the statement said.
Forest fires are burning mainly in Indonesia's part of Borneo island and on
Sumatra island, also in Indonesia. Most are deliberately lit. Each dry season,
forest is illegally torched to clear land for agriculture, blanketing Southeast
Asia in smog.
But farmers are also using traditional slash-and-burn methods to clear or
rejuvenate land.
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