MORE PICS- SEVERE INDONESIAN HAZE; KHAIRY JAMALLUDDIN & UMNO YOUTH Gang DEMONSTRATING in EMBASSY; PRESIDENT SUSILO Apologizes to Malaysia & Singapore

Hazy Quote from Indonesian Embassy staff when the DAP made an earlier visit:

"When we export oxygen, you don't say anything; when we export haze, you complain"

ABOVE & BELOW: The hills are alive with Fires in Indonesia with 60000 Hot spots at its height

ABOVE & BELOW: More Fires and More smog & More wind to blow them away

ABOVE & BELOW: The thickening haze is way above "Unhealthy Level" and bikers are switching on lights

UMNO DEMONSTRATION in FRONT of KL INDONESIAN EMBASSY
ABOVE and BELOW: UMNO Youth Vice Chief Khairy Jamalluddin and his gang members "demonstrating" the Memo he presented to the 2nd Secretary in the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur


UMNO Youth Vice Chief Khairy Jamalluddin: “We want the Hanoi Action Plan 1998 measures to reduce fire to be implemented immediately. We also want the Asean Transborder Agreement 2002 to be rectified by Indonesia”

Umno Youth also called for:(Extract from Sun)
- earnest implementation of the recommendations contained in Asean's Hanoi Plan of Action 1998 which specifies various measures, including damage control through fire fighting, cloud seeding and monitoring using satellite imaging;
- facilitation of assistance from neighbouring countries to help put out the fires as no country, including Indonesia, has the resources to do it alone; and
- severe action under the law against those responsible for the fires,
irrespective of who they may be, including Malaysians.

Meanwhile the Indonesian President Susolio Bambang Yudhoyono apoligised to Malaysia & Singapore.


President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono: “We are continuing our efforts in the central and regional areas but in reality, I have to admit the haze is a nuisance, it is still disturbing Indonesian people and region and in a limited way disturbing countries Malaysia and Singapore. On behalf of the Indonesian government, I apologize to those countries.

from channelnewsasia.com
Indonesia apologises for haze, agrees to convene meeting to tackle problem Posted: 11 October 2006 2058 hrs
JAKARTA : Indonesia apologised on Wednesday to Singapore and Malaysia for the choking haze over both countries and agreed to convene a meeting of regional environment ministers to tackle the problem.
"On behalf of the Indonesian government, I have to apologise to the neighbouring countries for this incident even though clearly this is not an intentional (act) by Indonesia," said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
"Clearly, this is not a problem we intend to inflict to our neighbours and we are continuously trying to tackle it and prevent it in future," Yudhoyono told a press briefing at his office in Jakarta. Anger had been growing in Malaysia and Singapore over the choking haze fromfires raging in Sumatra and Kalimantan in Indonesia, which every year drift over parts of Southeast Asia - damaging health and and disrupting transport
and tourism.
Yudhoyono's apology came after Singapore had earlier invited environment ministers from affected nations Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei to a meeting on Friday to discuss "urgent" measures to deal with the problem. But Indonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda insisted the meeting should be held in his country, possibly in Pekanbaru city on Sumatra island's Riau province, near Singapore.
"We want the meeting to be held nearer to the where the problem is being handled," he told reporters in Jakarta. Wirayuda did not say when the meeting in Sumatra would take place. Indonesia's annual burn-off causes a haze that typically smothers parts of Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand as well as Indonesia itself. Large corporations clearing forests for palm or timber plantations and small farmers using slash-and-burn methods have been blamed. - AFP/ms
= = = = = = = == = = =
Rain Expected To Bring Respite To Haze Hit Areas; October 11, 2006 19:06 PM
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 (Bernama) -- The haze, which had enveloped the southern and central part of Peninsular Malaysia over the past week, is expected to gradually improve due to more rain in the next few days. The Meteorological Services Department in a statement Wednesday said the haze in Sarawak was also in for some improvement, especially in the eastern part of the state, due to convective activities and rain.
"However, over the western part (of Sarawak), the situation is expected to remain the same. In Sabah, more convective activity is expected over the western part of the state.
"This may help improve the haze situation. Since the wind over the eastern part of Sabah is blowing from the south, the current haze situation may continue," said the statement.
The department said the visibility in the northern region of the peninsula, especially the central and southern parts, had generally improved due to the occurrence of more convective activities. "As the wind over the southern states is still blowing from the southeast and southwest direction, some areas of Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Johor and Melaka are experiencing intermittent hazy conditions.
"At 2pm today, the visibility at Kuantan, Batu Pahat, Mersing and Melaka were between 2.5 and 4km," the department added. It also said that although the coastal areas of Sarawak experienced scattered rain, there was no significant improvement in the haze affecting the state since last week.
The visibility at Sibu had however improved to 7km with Kuching and Sri Aman recording the lowest visibility of between 1km and 2km. In Sabah, the haze had deteriorated slightly over the last 24-hours with visibility at Tawau, Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu fluctuating between 2km and 4km.
It said that as of Tuesday, a total 452 hot spots were detected in Sumatera, where forest fires were raging covering most parts of the southeast Asian region with smoke.
= = = = = = = =
Asean Ministers To Meet Over Haze In S'pore On Friday; October 11, 2006 11:07 AM

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Azmi Khalid is expected to represent Malaysia at the meeting.
SINGAPORE, Oct 11 (Bernama) -- Environment ministers from five Asean countries will meet here on Friday to discuss immediate and long-term measures to tackle the regional haze problem. The meeting comes amid growing frustration among countries affected by the recurrent smoke haze phenomenon caused mainly by forest and bush fires in Indonesia's Kalimantan and Sumatra. Besides Indonesia, four others attending the meeting are Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei and host, Singapore -- countries which have been affected by the current haze problem.

The one-day meeting is at the invitation of Singapore's Minister of Environment and Water Resources Dr Yaacob Ibrahim."The meeting will discuss urgent and long-term measures that the countries could undertake to tackle the regional haze problem," the ministry said in a statement.


Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Azmi Khalid (ABOVE) is expected to represent Malaysia at the meeting, called the "Sub-Regional Ministerial Meeting on Transboundary Haze Pollution".
In Singapore, the air quality has returned to the range of "good" and "moderate" after hitting an unhealthy level of 128 of the pollutant standards index (PSI) on Saturday, prompting the National Environment Agency to issue its first health advisory. Visibility remained low at between 2km and 4km.
After a severe environmental crisis following the haze problem towards the end of 1990's, the 10-member Asean signed an environmental agreement in 2002 to bring haze pollution under control in the region. Since then, seven countries -- Brunei, Malaysia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam -- have ratified the agreement.
Indonesia, which is often blamed for the haze problem, is reported to be still in the process of ratifying it.

GoTo TOP (Main Page)