South Sumatra Police Handle 16 Land Burning Cases

The Musi Banyuasin Police Task Force carried out the blackout of forest and land fires. (ANTARA/HO Public Relations of the South Sumatra Police/23)

PALEMBANG - South Sumatra Regional Police (Polda) officers handled 16 cases related to land burning in the area.

South Sumatra Police Chief Inspector General Albertus Rachmad Wibowo said in this case, his party had arrested 26 suspects. Meanwhile, the handling of the land fire case has entered the second stage and has been handed over to the Prosecutor's Office for further trial.

"Land fires in South Sumatra have occurred a lot in the areas of Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI), Ogan Ilir, and also Banyuasin, where their motive is to clear land," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, September 8.

He explained that in the near future he would deploy personnel from both the Police and the TNI to socialize the prevention of land fires to villages in South Sumatra, especially the three villages that had been mentioned earlier.

"The estimated personnel from the National Police are around 400 people, and they are focused on OIC, OI, Banyuasin regencies. Their main task is to enter the villages to meet leaders there for socialization, we also plan an online meeting with local governments, sub-district heads, later collected in sub-districts or police or Koramil. We will make training or socialization begin on September 11, 2023," he explained.

His party together with the Chairman of the South Sumatra DPRD have appealed to all sub-district heads and village heads in the three regencies to continue to remind their citizens not to burn on peatlands.

This land fire has really made it uncomfortable because since morning it had to smell the smoke, especially for children, it is certainly not safe to cause ARI. In addition, for flights, it is also not safe, of course, so please understand it," he said.

The process of extinguishing the burned land is also carried out by air.

"We have experienced bad disasters like this in 2015 and 2019, don't let the same thing keep repeating itself. Moreover, El Nino this year is quite long," said the South Sumatra Police Chief.