Jakarta – The National Police added on Tuesday five more foreign firms to their list of companies suspected of causing forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan that have produced haze over Singapore and parts of Malaysia and Thailand.
According to National Police detective division chief Comr. Gen. Anang Iskandar, the five companies have been identified as PT KAL (Australia), PT IA (Malaysia), PT PAH (Malaysia), PT H (Singapore) and PT MB (Malaysia).
The police also declared last week PT ASP (China) and PT AP (Malaysia) suspect. "The cases are being handled by local police. The companies allegedly committed the slash-and-burn practices," said Anang.
He also said that the local police had detained three Indonesian citizens working as executives in the companies. "The investigations will continue and more suspects may be named in coming days," said Anang.
The hazardous haze has forced the closure of thousands of schools, grounded hundreds of flights and has caused trans-boundary air pollution that has affected Indonesia's neighbors including Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.