Again, Mina tragedy

Again, Mina tragedy

The worst tragedy of any haj pilgrim occurred in 1990. More than 1,400 people were killed, including 632 Indonesians, in the pedestrian tunnel al-Muaisim, Mina, Saudi Arabia.

A few days ago, a similar tragedy occurred in the same area and claimed 252 lives -- six of them being identified as Indonesians -- out of 2.5 million haj pilgrims.

Whatever the fatalities, they are all our brothers and sisters who should not have been involved in such an accident.

Why did such an incident occur again?

According to the Saudi government, it happened because the thousands of haj pilgrims who were hurrying to throw stones at three piles of rocks symbolizing the devil in the same place and at the time ignored the instructions given to them. But we cannot deny that the flow of haj pilgrims going to and returning from performing the ritual was not managed well.

The tragedy has taken place and it is of no use to blame each other. Instead we must find out how future haj pilgrims will be able to complete the haj ritual comfortably and safely.

This misfortune reminds us that the annual event should be managed more professionally. It is important that all countries comply with the decided quota of haj pilgrims: just one person for every 1,000 Moslems. So every season there should be just 1.5 million haj pilgrims in Mecca or Mina.

If the quota is not complied with, such a tragedy could happen again even though the Saudi government provides all the facilities.

--Republika, Jakarta

Rwanda: At least do this

The members of the United Nations are doing something seriously wrong in Rwanda. In mid-May they voted to dispatch additional peacekeeping troops to contain the slaughter, offer relief to the survivors and give backing to diplomatic attempts to bring about a cease-fire.

The Security Council decided on this program -- a very modest one considering the scale of the inferno -- in order to meet the prudent objections of its members, especially the United States. But having marched up the hill of promises, the United Nations is collapsing on delivery. It is not putting into effect even its own minimal program to deal with one of the great human-rights tragedies of contemporary times.

UN Secretary-General Boutros-Boutros Ghali has called it a scandal and a failure. Some may smart under the criticism. But others seem to be taking palpable relief in having not been drawn into a Somalia-like engagement to bolster, only a condition of chaos and anarchy to avoid.

This is an understandable reaction to political pressures not to get involved. Few Americans claim the United States has a "national interest" in saving Rwanda. But the implications of this detachment are grave.

Here are otherwise unoffending people being killed in the hundreds of thousands, and being displaced in the millions, on the basis of tribal or ethnic distinctions.

At least, international sentiment ought to be roused behind a call for an immediate cease-fire. The countries ready to provide peacekeeping forces -- Ghana, Ethiopia and Senegal -- should be joined by others and enabled to begin their mission at once. As much of an international presence as possible should be mobilized to give pause to the Hutu army, chief perpetrators of the slaughter.

Humanitarian aid can be provided, perhaps best now at the borders. No one would say that responses of this order match the need. But they are a down payment on a fuller recognition that genocide should nowhere be regarded as regrettable but too inconvenient to do anything about.

--The Washington Post