Indonesian police arrest 72 people over forest fires

Indonesian police have arrested 72 people suspected of starting some of the recent forest and peatland fires as huge blazes in central and western parts of the country triggered a harmful cloud known as a choking haze.

Indonesia has been battling fires driven by an intensifying El Nino pattern and a prolonged dry season, generating dense smoke that crossed into Malaysia, according to Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency, or BNPB.

Fires are a regular problem in the country and often strain relations with neighbours.

Plantation owners and traditional farmers often start fires to clear land for farming, director of special crimes at the National Police's Criminal Investigation Agency Mohammad Irhamni said.

The arson suspects were being investigated in connection with 89 forest and land fire cases across five provinces on the island of Borneo and four on Sumatra, Irhamni said.

He said most of the suspects were accused of deliberately burning land to clear areas for plantations at lower cost.

Investigators were still tracing financial records to determine whether companies financed or ordered the land clearing, signalling the probe could expand beyond those arrested.

"We will not stop at the perpetrators on the ground," Irhami said in a news conference on Sunday in the capital Jakarta.

"We will determine who benefited from these activities and who was ultimately behind them."

The suspects face charges that carry penalties ranging from hefty fines to prison terms of up to 15 years, he said.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto flew on Saturday to Central Kalimantan province, where more than 7600 hectares have burned, to encourage authorities to get the haze cloud under control.

Prabowo promised government resources required to contain the fires, including helicopters and water pumps, and vowed to hold accountable any companies found to have contributed to the fires.

"We have experienced worse forest and land fires in the past, and we were able to overcome them."

Accompanying the president was Prasetyo Hadi, the head of State Secretariat.