Nurse nuns stabbed during break-in
Indonesian police have arrested more than double the number of individuals in forest fire cases this year compared with 2015, when large parts of the region were blanketed in choking smog from fires that caused a national crisis.
According to police data released yesterday, 454 individuals have been arrested in connection with forest fires so far this year, up from 196 arrests in 2015.
Home to the world’s thirdlargest area of tropical forests, Indonesia has been criticised over the haze by green activists and neighbouring Southeast Asian nations, and despite a decline in hotspots this year its authorities are under pressure to show they are taking action.
Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya said patrols were educating the public about alternatives to using fire to clear land and checking if arrested individuals understand the broader concerns.
‘‘If we can see they were acting on orders they are immediately investigated by police,’’ she said.
So far, nine companies are being investigated in connection with fires this year, compared with 25 that were investigated throughout 2015, police chief investigator Ari Dono said.
It was not immediately clear what punishments would be imposed.
National police chief Tito Karnavian said law enforcement was one of the reasons the total area of land burnt in 2016 had declined ‘‘significantly‘‘, coupled with a quicker response in fighting fires, more preventative efforts and favourable weather conditions compared with 2015.
Heavy smoke from slash-andburn clearing often comes from the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan, where large forest concessions are used by pulp and paper and palm oil companies, some of which are listed in Singapore.
Indonesia imposed record fines against a local plantation company this month in connection with fires in 2014.
WRI Indonesia forest and climate manager Arief Wijaya praised the government for showing a stronger commitment to tackling fires this year, but said the current approach may not be enough to stop fires from being lit.
‘‘The long-term solution to forest fires in Indonesia actually lies with the local people,’’ Wijaya said.
‘‘If setting fires is part of the culture, plus poverty, plus demand to fulfil basic livelihood of people liv- ing in areas surrounding peat areas or forests then fires will always happen.’’
Law enforcement efforts, he said, have tended to focus on catching individuals lighting fires, rather than punishing plantation concession holders or companies for negligence.
‘‘We know not all concessions have firefighting infrastructure,’’ he said.
According to Zenzi Suhadi, head of legal research at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), companies often burn forest and get it rezoned for plantations the following year once it has been classified as ‘‘degraded’’.
‘‘The legal process is still far from effective in stopping environmental crime, forest crime and corporate crime.’’ Two nuns who worked as nurses and helped the poor in rural Mississippi were found slain in their home, perhaps victims of a break-in and vehicle theft, officials said yesterday.
Authorities would not say if they have a suspect but disclosed they had recovered a car missing from the home. They also did not release a cause of death, but the Reverend Greg Plata said police told him the sisters were stabbed.
The nuns were identified as Sister Margaret Held and Sister Paula Merrill, both 68. Their bodies were taken to a state crime laboratory for autopsies.
The women, both nurse practitioners, were found yesterday morning when they didn’t report to work at a nearby clinic, where they provided flu shots, insulin and other medical care for children and adults who couldn’t afford it.
‘‘They were two of the sweetest, most gentle women you can imagine. Their vocation was helping the poor,’’ said Plata, who oversees a 35-member Catholic church the sisters attended.
Maureen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Jackson, said there were signs of a break-in at the home and the nuns’ vehicle was missing.
Later, Warren Strain, spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, said the vehicle was found abandoned barely a kilometre from the home. It was towed to the state crime lab.
Police Chief John Haynes said officers were checking video from surveillance cameras in town to see if they could spot anything unusual.
Merrill had worked in Mississippi for more than 30 years, according to the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Kentucky. She was from Massachusetts and joined the order in 1979.
Two years later, she moved to the South and found her calling in the Mississippi Delta community, according to a 2010 article in The Journey, a publication by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.