JAKARTA: Indonesian police have confirmed foreign involvement, including from neighbouring countries, in 98 corporate cases linked to the forest and land fires gripping the country.
National Police Chief General Suyudi Ario Seto said the Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) was working to identify those responsible and establish the nature of their involvement.
"Of the 98 corporate cases we are investigating, there is foreign involvement, but as the investigations are ongoing, we are still determining which involve foreign investment or foreign parties and which do not," he told a press conference after a limited Cabinet meeting with President Prabowo Subianto in Jakarta on Monday.
Suyudi said investigators were gathering evidence and expected to name suspects soon, including company owners and shareholders who could be held responsible for the fires.
Separately, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Dudung Abdurachman called for firefighting operations to be intensified without waiting for rainfall, stressing the need for immediate and sustained action.
"The president instructed that the deployment of troops and personnel, including the Indonesian military, police, Forestry Service and members of the public, be intensified.
"This must be carried out on a massive scale, in a measured manner and without delay, because the situation has become very disruptive," he said.
Dudung also said Indonesia had responded to offers of foreign assistance, including from Malaysia and Singapore, with the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) coordinating technical arrangements for the proposed support.
However, at an earlier press conference, he said foreign assistance would have to wait until the Indonesian government declared the fires a national disaster. The government has yet to take this step, maintaining that it can manage the crisis with its own resources.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd