More help to fight Indonesian forest fires

CYBERJAYA: Malaysia wants to send even more help to Indonesia to fight the republic’s forest fires.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said he would be meeting officials from the Indonesian government today in Jakarta to see what assistance they required.

“We have already sent an aircraft to Indonesia to help extinguish the forest fires, and the Indonesian government told us it had helped a bit.

“But as we only have one such aircraft that could load water to put out the fires, the plane needs to be returned to Malaysia to undergo maintenance and service.

“In the meantime, we would like to see what other sort of assistance we can provide. We are willing to send more, including our own firemen,” said Dr Wan Junaidi to reporters on the sidelines of a luncheon with Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) board members here.

Winds from the north-east coming here since Sunday are expected to clear the skies over Malaysia from now on.