Indonesian haze clears

Indonesia's neighbours are also afflicted by the haze

By Richard Galpin BBC correspondent in Jakarta

The authorities in Indonesia say the haze that had cloaked large parts of Borneo and Sumatra has now lifted.

Children have been able to get back to school

Schools which were closed for several days have reopened and people have stopped wearing masks to protect them from the thick smoke caused by forest fires.

The haze had already spread to neighbouring countries, including Singapore and Malaysia, prompting complaints to the government in Jakarta.

But rains which began on Friday afternoon and continued into Saturday have come to the rescue of the region once again, dousing many of the fires on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

Officials say the air quality and visibility in the worst affected cities in Borneo, such as Pontianac and Polankaraya, have now improved significantly.

Life in these areas has returned to some kind of normality, in particular with children able to go back to school.

But there is still a large number of fires burning on both islands, and the crisis is by no means over.

This summer has been very dry and the rainy season does not begin for another two months.

There is every possibility that the fires will spread again and the haze will return.

Shifting the blame

The Indonesian government has already been sharply criticised for its handling of the crisis by environmentalists here and by governments in neighbouring countries.

Fires are used to clear deforested areas

It has been accused of failing to take any real action and instead trying to shift the blame for the fires onto traditional small farmers, clearing areas of forest and scrubland to plant crops.

One of Indonesia's leading environmental experts has been quoted as saying that most of the fires are in fact located within large industrial timber estates and plantations, many of which are owned by powerful businessmen.

These companies also use fire to clear forest areas once they have been logged.

Setting fires for this purpose is in theory illegal, but there have been very few prosecutions since the law was passed three years ago.

The forestry industry is riddled with corruption, and with so much money involved it is easy to buy off local officials.