Roundup: Indonesia launches int'l fight against forest fires amid mounting pressure for national disaster state

Indonesia finally accepted the help of foreign countries to quell the raging fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan amid the warming effects of El Nino that have triggered famine in the forest regions.

A fire-fighting team from Singapore has arrived in Indonesia on Friday with more teams from Malaysia, Australia, Russia, China and South Korea expected to arrive in the coming days. They would bring planes and helicopters capable of extinguishing forest fires.

Those aircraft are expected to join a water-bombing operation in the worst-affected areas. Indonesia has dispatched 20 planes and helicopters to carry out water bombing and artificial rain in Sumatra and Kalimantan since May.

The foreign assistance would be assigned to help fight forest fire in South Sumatra province where most of "hotspots" were detected. At least 414 "hotspots" were recorded in Sumatra on Friday, according to Indonesia's Meteorology, Geophysics and Climatology Agency (BMKG) agency.

President Joko Widodo visited areas affected by the forest fire in Riau province on Friday. He traveled to Kampar in the province by car as the haze was still disrupting fights to Riau's capital of Pakanbaru.

"I am already on the ground now, seeing what really happens. Troops, police and BNPB (Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency) have really done their utmost. But we have to understand the areas gutted by fire were very vast, 1.7 million hectares," he said at a public health center in Kampar.

The Indonesian government was urged to declare a state of national disaster so as to make the efforts more effective and efficient.

The forest fires had led to 14 casualties, including 12 people who died from respiratory tract infections and two who were killed in car crashes due to low visibility amid the thick haze, said the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).

Meanwhile, more than 300,000 people in Sumatra and Kalimantan suffered from respiratory disease related to the haze emitted by the forest fire.

Lukman Edy, a legislator of Commission II at the parliament, said the government seemed incapable of dealing with the disaster.

He added that local administrators in the affected areas did not dare to allocate funds from their budgets to fight the forest fires.

"This is because of the absence of national disaster status. At the same time, people were suffering from the haze," the legislator from the National Awakening Party (PKB) said.

The Commission II in the parliament planned to establish a task force to discuss ways to tackle the haze problem.

"The aim of the task force is to intensify coordination between state secretary office, presidential chief of staff office, home affairs and agrarian ministries to address the haze issues," he said.

BNPB Chairman Willem Rampangiley said earlier that there was no need to declare a national disaster state as the government has engaged their national resources, including funds, personnel and equipment to fight the blazes.

Pressures have also been mounted by neighbor countries of Singapore and Malaysia which were shrouded by the haze from Indonesia's forest fires that have disrupted daily lives in their territories.

Forest fires, caused by land clearing for palm oil plantations, have occurred in Indonesia intermittently in the past 18 years. The land clearing was conducted by simply set fire on the trees in the forest.

Indonesia has intensified legal punishments against those involved in forest fires. The police have arrested at least 240 individuals responsible for the blazes this year, some of them executives of plantation firms. Endi