Jakarta, ThedailyID — Indonesian police have named 243 individuals and 14 companies as suspects in forest and land fires across the country. Authorities are investigating hundreds of police reports involving thousands of hectares of burned land.
According to an update shared by Indonesia’s Government Communications Agency (Bakom) on Instagram on Sunday, October 25, the 243 individual suspects came from 286 police reports handled by 13 regional police departments. The cases involved 5,856.84 hectares of burned land.
Meanwhile, the 14 corporate suspects were linked to 104 police reports handled by 10 regional police departments and the National Police’s law enforcement directorate. The affected land covered 29,168.78 hectares.
As of October 23, authorities had recorded 41,554 hectares of burned land and 19,708 fire hotspots nationwide. Fires had been extinguished across 14,873 hectares.
Bakom also reported that 67,933 joint personnel had been deployed to tackle the fires. The teams included members of the Indonesian Military (TNI), National Police and regional disaster management agencies (BPBD).
President Prabowo Subianto has made wildfire control a government priority. During a plenary cabinet meeting on October 21, he said human activities had contributed to the fires and called for investigations into companies and individuals suspected of responsibility.
“We consider this environmental terrorism, a crime against humanity. What they are doing endangers the health of millions of our people,” Prabowo said.
He instructed police and intelligence officials to investigate suspected violations. Prabowo also ordered the government to revoke permits held by companies proven to have violated regulations and contributed to the fires.
“We cannot take this lightly. We will now address this on a massive scale, but we will also investigate it thoroughly,” Prabowo said. “If the evidence is clear, we will act and revoke the permits of companies that violate the rules.”
The investigations are part of the government’s broader response to fires affecting multiple regions across Indonesia. Authorities have deployed personnel to contain the blazes while pursuing suspected individuals and companies.
