Economic crisis
Forest fires that first blighted large areas of South Asia in 1997 continued to burn out of control on Indonesian territory in the islands of Borneo and Sumatra in February 1998. About 1,000 forest fires were burning in Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo, killing or putting to flight endangered species such as orang-utans and proboscis monkeys. A report published in February 1998 said that the 1997 haze caused US$1 billion of damage, most of it as a result of damage to health and lost tourism and industrial production. The crisis in Indonesia claimed its first victims in mid-February 1998 as troops shot and killed civilians in