Dense Haze Reported in Samarinda on Friday Morning

Samarinda, E Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - The haze shrouding Samarinda, the capital of East Kalimantan Province, thickened on Friday, according to Sutrisno, Head of the Temindung Meteorology Office.

Visibility in Samarinda at 7 a.m. local time was pegged at only 200 meters, and gradually improved until it reached three kilometers at 10 a.m.

Based on the monitoring done by the Terra and Aqua satellites on September 25, 88 hotspots were detected in East Kalimantan.

Of the total 88, 83 hotspots were found in Paser District, four in Kutai Kartanegara District, and one in the East Kutai District.

In the meantime, the Indonesian police were investigating some 213 reports of forest and land fires, as of Thursday, which have affected 39,000 hectares of land across the country.

"Based on our reports, 201 persons have been named as suspects, including 192 individuals and nine corporations," the Head of the Public Information Department, Brigadier General Agus Riyanto said at the National Police Headquarters in Jakarta, on Friday.

He said 68 individual suspects had been detained and that dossiers related to their cases had been filed, similar to the ones filed on five other corporations, which have been submitted to the prosecutor`s office.

Dossiers have been submitted to the prosecutor`s office in South Sumatra, Jambi, Riau and Kalimantan.

Agus said the crime investigation department at the National Police headquarters has so far only handled cases in South Sumatra, as others are being handled by the regional police command.

He said the National Police Headquarters had deployed 670 personnel to help fight forest fires and 70 investigators to examine cases related to them.

National Police Chief General Badrodin Haiti said dealing with the problem would first involve preventing the involvement of the regional governments, the military and the police.  (*)