REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PEKANBARU -- The army personnel joining the Riau Forest and Land Firefighting Task Force have caught red handed three local residents while burning a piece of land in Rokan Hilir District, Riau Province, a military officer said. The suspects' identity was not mentioned, but they were all local residents who had no connection with any company.

"The three suspected arsonists that we arrested yesterday have been handed over to the police," Commander of the Wirabima Military Resort Command Brig. Gen. Sonny Aprianto said here on Monday.

Asked about the shoot-on-sight policy on those caught red handed while setting a piece of land on fire that he had ever conveyed to media earlier, Aprianto said he preferred handing over to the police to directly implementing the policy. He said the military upholded standard operational procedures in handling the case.

"The shoot-on-sight policy will not be implemented as we like," Aprianto said adding that he had recently met with those from Riau Province's Forestry Office and Disaster Mitigation Agency.

At the meeting, they were convinced by the fact that at least a thousand hectares of land in Rokan Hilir District have been affected by the land and forest fires. Majority of which were classified as "the barren and empty areas of land".

"Those areas of land belong to the locals except the ones in Sungai Sembilan on the border of Rokan Hilir District and Dumai city. The Sungai Sembilan areas that the fire engulfed are suspected of being owned by PT Diamon Timbel," he said.

The related parties were thoroughly mapping those affected areas while the Riau Forest and Land Firefighting Task Force team members continued their endeavors to extinguish fires in Rokan Hilir District areas over the past week, he said. The land and forest fires had destroyed at least ten houses, one car, and several motorbikes of local people.

As of Monday, referring to the latest satellite images, the Pekanbaru Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) revealed that a total of 15 hot spots were detected in several parts of Riau Province, including four in Rokan Hilir District.

President Joko Widodo had earlier asked the related authorities to do their best to ensure that the 18th Asian Games are not disrupted by the land and forest fires.

"As the host of the Asian Games, we must be able to ensure that the land and forest fires do not occur during the multi-sport event, so that our image and flights are not disrupted by the haze," he said at a coordination meeting for the Forest and Land Fire Mitigation in Jakarta last February.

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