Indonesia
By Larry Habegger | Permalink |
No Comments | August 27th, 2002 | Trackback
Smog season has returned to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, and the haze created by illegal fires has spread to neighboring Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. Rains over the weekend helped douse some of the fires and clear the air in Pontianac and Polankaraya, the Borneo cities most affected, but the rainy season doesn’t start for another two months and more fires are likely. Flights to Pekanbaru, Sumatra were delayed by the smog. The Indonesian government blames small slash-and-burn farmers for setting the illegal blazes, but worse culprits are large timber companies that use fires to clear land that has been logged. Air quality throughout the region could deteriorate further over the next two months.
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Indonesia
By Larry Habegger | Permalink |
No Comments | August 13th, 2002 | Trackback
Sulawesi has seen intermittent violence between Muslims and Christians the last two years, and recent clashes prompted a resumption of peace talks led by the country’s chief welfare minister. A peace agreement was signed by local Muslim and Christian leaders in December; this current meeting was called to review security arrangements since that time and to discuss ways to avoid further violence. Just three days before the talks an Italian tourist was killed when a bus in which he was riding was attacked near Poso, the region where most of this violence has occurred. He was traveling from Tanah Toraja, a well-known tourist area, to Palu, the capital of the province of Central Sulawesi. Many of the recent incidents have been attacks on buses.
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