On Tuesday, 17 October airport authorities closed three airports due to thick haze from raging forest fires closing in on the areas. These are the airports of Jambi and Pekanbaru in Sumatra, and Pontianak in West Kalimantan . The airports are closed for two or three days until the 19^th or 20^th October due to very poor visibility, thus completely frustrating thousands of passengers, ready to celebrate the end of the Ramadhan fasting month with family and friends.

Last Friday, ASEAN Environment Ministers from , and Brunei Darussalam, convened a meeting in Pekanbaru, Riau, in efforts to solve the problem of the annual dry season haze in the region caused by forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan . The Meeting was earlier scheduled to be held in , but on ’s request was moved to Pekanbaru.   

In the Meeting, ASEAN ministers agreed to assist to fight forest fires and raise a haze fund, but the so-called "haze fund" can only be raised once ratifies an ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, reports the Jakarta Post. 

signed the agreement in 2002 but has yet to ratify it, awaiting endorsement from Parliament. Indonesian legislators have yet to discuss the Bill as many legislators see the need to include illegal logging provisions in the Bill. 

Haze from forest fires in South and West Kalimantan, Riau and Jambi have affected neighbouring Bruenei Darussalam, and in the past week, causing air pollution and affecting their economies. 

Haze from slash-and-burn land clearing has been a chronic annual problem between and its neighbors. In the worst 1997-1998 case, it caused US$9 billion in financial losses to business activities and disruption of flights. 

Indonesia’s Environment Minister, Rachmat Witoelar, in response said that the government appreciated that neighboring countries wished to ratify the agreement but this must follow the country's laws. 

In Friday's meeting in Riau, Indonesia’s Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said there an agreement was made to provide assistance in the form of equipment to combat forest fires as well as a plan to hold a workshop in November. The ministers have also formed a steering committee to implement the agreement, reported the Jakarta Post.  

"The results of the meeting (in Riau) will be taken to the ASEAN meeting in Cebu, the , in November," Minister Rachmat said.

Meanwhile, South Sumatra Governor Syahrial Oesman said forest fires had caused the province Rp 129.7 billion in financial losses, as the disaster has affected 55,815 hectares of land, of which 16 percent of fires took place on peat land. 

"Currently, forest fires are occurring in the eastern coastal area of South Sumatra, which is mostly covered by peat land," he said, adding that 1,620 hot spots recorded between September and October were mostly found in Ogan Komering Ilir regency. 

Meanwhile, Central Kalimantan Governor Agustin Teras Narang said the government needed to enact stricter laws and push for united action by local people to deal with the fires that cause the haze. "Haze is an extraordinary disaster. That's why we need an extraordinary system to fight it. A government regulation in lieu of law should be issued to enable us to take action," he told a discussion in Jakarta on Saturday. 

A similar call was made Thursday by a leading environmental group, Walhi. Executive director Chalid Muhammad said the best way to tackle the blazes was to enact  stricter regulations authorizing the government to revoke the licenses of businesses and punish individuals responsible for forest fires. 

Putting such regulations into force could yield dramatic results as most of the fires were blamed on forest concession holders using illegal slash-and-burn methods to open land, he said. Governor Teras Narang, a former House of Representatives member from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), argued that existing laws do not allow police to take on-the-spot action against forest burners.  

"Many suspects are able to evade arrest because of weak support from the central government," he said. Teras explained that police could not arrest suspects on the spot or collect evidence in the field because of their limited powers. 

"Law enforcement also needs to be faster. The current system now takes a long time," he said, adding that solving a case should take no longer than three months. 

"For example, a district court should take no longer than 30 days to issue a haze-related verdict, a high court should then take 15 days and the Supreme Court should take 20 days at the most," Teras said. 

The governor said that without comprehensive and supportive action from the central government, he could not stop the annual haze problem that had sparked strong protests from Singapore and Malaysia . 

The central government has admitted to having little success in trying to put out the forest fires and fight the haze. 

It has tried to induce rains to douse the blazes, but to no avail, because many hot spots on peat land were hard to extinguish. 

Teras said he would form a joint team to prevent and monitor fires and take action against groups or people responsible for forest fires in Central Kalimantan .

The province is one of the hardest hit areas in the country. Local residents have complained of health problems due to the thick haze permeating the region. 

Teras said subdistrict administrations would serve as the "striker" for the team, while local public figures would also be incorporated because of their ability to move local people. 

" Central Kalimantan rainforests are the lungs of the world. This should be a responsibility that we all share," Teras said. 

Speaking at the same discussion, House of Representatives member Hilman Indra also called on the central government to actively involve local people to help stop the fires. 

Indonesia's neighbours are growing increasingly frustrated with Jakarta's failure to tackle the annual dry season fires, most of which are deliberately lit by farmers or at the direction of timber and oil palm plantation companies, reports Reuters from Kuala Lumpur . 

Indonesian officials have said forces of nature and the country's social conditions severely limit the effectiveness of government's fire suppression measures, and have called for ASEAN aid. 

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said a collective fund was needed to battle the problem."We need to have a fund where everybody contributes because we are all affected," he told reporters. Asked whether would press for compensation from , he said: "we have not thought of the question". "I don't think it will be fair for any country like (to) spend on our own. It's too big, it's too much. The source is in ," Syed Hamid said. 

Indonesian officials have said Malaysian- and Singaporean-owned timber and plantation companies bear a large part of the responsibility for the fires. 

Meanwhile, Indonesian Forestry Minister M.S. Kaban said that more than 75 percent of the fires were not in government forests but are on plantations and farms of private companies and local people. He said Central Kalimantan was the worst hit, with around 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of peat land in one area on fire. Peat fires are hard to put out and can burn for months, reports Reuters. bans slash-and-burn practices by farmers and plantations. But prosecutions take time and few have stuck