The crash of a Garuda Indonesia Airbus in a mountainous region of Indonesia, killing all 234 passengers and crew, has focused world attention on the possible cause, a rapidly-escalating ecological disaster in South-East Asia in the form of the biggest blanket of choking, blinding smog the region has ever seen.
A conspiracy of man and nature has produced the smoke pollution which has turned day into night in the worst-affected areas. In the past few weeks it has spread across Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and to the southern Philippines and parts of Thailand.
It is common practice to clear forest land by fire in Indonesia, which comprises some 14,000 islands. This year the torching of forests by logging companies in Indonesia's West Kalimantan and Sumatra regions has been more widespread than before. In thousands of out-of-the-way plantations and in remote forests, fires started by farmers to clear the land have got out of control, making the job of firefighting extremely difficult and complicated. Normally, frequent tropical rains would dampen the fires. But this year the El Nino effect - the abnormal warming of waters in the Pacific Ocean which occurs approximately every four years - has brought the worst drought in a century to parts of Indonesia. The fires are spreading in tinder-dry undergrowth. Overdue monsoon rains may not arrive until November.
In some areas the situation has become critical. A ring of fire surrounds Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra, where the drought has dried up the bush. When a smoke-imposed curfew was lifted yesterday 15 fires could be seen blazing around the city from arriving aircraft. The haze has closed schools and airports and at times turned day into near-night. The smog is so thick it has clogged up monitoring equipment in Indonesia. Doctors in Indonesia and Malaysia have warned that the effect on the human body is equivalent to smoking 40 cigarettes a day. In Jambi in southern Sumatra, the town's 300,000 residents are said to be choking in a thick haze of acrid smoke from fires set to clear land for rubber and palm oil plantations. Visibility is less than 100 metres; cars need their headlights on full in the middle of the day; the airport has been closed for more than three weeks.
An emergency has been declared across much of Indonesia and Malaysia and Singapore. In Singapore the pollution index has reached 162, with the air carrying toxic elements like sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and ozone. Levels of 101 and above are considered unhealthy.
Singapore has warned the elderly and people with heart and respiratory diseases to reduce physical exertion and stay indoors. The oil-rich sultanate of Brunei on Wednesday cancelled all outdoor and physical activities as the smog thickened.
An Indonesian minister, Mr Suyono Tahya, said two Indonesians had died of respiratory complications and another 32,328 were suffering from breathing problems. About 15,000 people have received medical treatment in Malaysia. Parents are keeping children indoors both to escape the pollution and the traffic travelling almost blind. In southern Thailand, officials said the haze had arrived but was not yet at danger levels. In the Philippines the southern cities of General Santos in Mindanao and Puerto Princesa in Palawan have been the worst affected so far, but the haze has now reached the capital, Manila. The smog is dealing a second major blow to the South-East Asian region which until this summer was enjoying a reputation for the success of its tiger economies. A currency crisis and plunging stock markets have swept the very same countries which are now affected by the fire haze, which could seriously affect their development plans. At the World Bank/IMF conference in Hong Kong this week, much anger was vented by representatives of the countries concerned against Indonesia, just as Indonesia and other regional countries expressed their fury against events in Thailand which pulled down their currencies and stock markets.
Indeed the way events in one country can affect others had delegates commenting on how they illustrated the dangers of an interdependent global economy. Neighbours this time accused Jakarta of doing too little too late.
Indonesia has now mobilised thousands of soldiers to fight fires in Borneo where the smoke is so dangerous that Malaysia is considering evacuating its part of the island.
But the truth is it cannot tackle the ecological catastrophe on its own. Malaysia has shelved its criticisms and sent at least 1,200 firefighters to Indonesia to help the 9,000 firemen already deployed. It has also offered air force transport planes to waterbomb the flames. The volunteers have arrived in the central Sumatran province of Riau and will fan out across Sumatra.
Somewhat belatedly, President Suharto of Indonesia imposed a ban on fires last month and yesterday approved a new environmental law that empowers the government to prosecute those who start forest and land fires in the country.
The law has given the government immediate power to charge those responsible for polluting the environment, and increases jail sentences from 10 to 15 years. But environmental critics say the existing law has not been applied stringently in the past.
Authorities are concerned mainly at the immediate health effects of the thick haze on the 20 million people affected, but the financial burden will be heavy long after the fires have died down.
Crops are vulnerable as they are deprived of oxygen and sunlight - one report said that even bees could not produce honey or pollinate in the thick smog - and the cost of abandoned airports, grounded flights, factory closings and disrupted distribution will seriously affect the economies of the region, especially in export earnings from agriculture.
Indonesia is already counting the cost. Inflation could rise from a current target of 5 per cent to 8 per cent and growth rates fall by 2 per cent.
Revenues from tourism are expected to slump. Smog has also spread to the popular Thai resort of Phuket, 250 miles north-east of the northern tip of Sumatra, although aircraft can still land. Countries around the world are now warning their nationals not to travel to the region for the sake of their health. The US State Department has warned its citizens that air pollution has reached unhealthy levels in Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia.
The British travel agency Thomas Cook is refusing to take new bookings for holidays in affected areas. The Australian government has cautioned people who are pregnant and suffer from heart and respiratory illnesses about travelling in South-East Asia. Indonesia is seeing its $6 billion tourist industry going up, literally, in smoke.
"There is not much we can do but hope the wind changes direction," said a spokesman for the Singapore Tourism Promotion Board. "We won't see joy in the number of inbound tourists in September and October especially after several western countries issued warnings to travellers to this region." Harpers Travel, a Malaysian tour agency, has been delivered a double blow.
"Outbound we are hit by the currency thing and inbound by this haze problem," said the general manager, Mr Cho Loi Hong, referring to the devaluation of the Malaysian currency, the ringgit. A Malaysian tour group, Borneo Adventure, says business fell 80 per cent in one week.
The one tourist destination which is best known throughout the world, the tropical island of Bali in Indonesia, has not been affected - yet.
Editorial comment: page 11