Indonesia labels forest fires an emergency

  • 02/12/1999

Hundreds of fires scorching forests in Indonesia's Sumatra and West Kalimantan regions have reached emergency proportions, officials said yesterday. Huge clouds of smoke are billowing over Sumatra's Riau province and there are fears of a repeat of the 1997 jungle blazes which engulfed neighbouring Singapore and parts of Malaysia in thick smoke."It is already an emergency," Environment Minister Soni Keraf told reporters just before going into a cabinet meeting where the issue will be discussed.