Chaos mars haj journey

Chaos mars haj journey

JAKARTA (JP): Government officials assured concerned intending
haj pilgrims yesterday that they would all be able to make the
trip, despite the chaos surrounding some of the flights to Saudi
Arabia.

More than 1,000 people have been stranded for the past week as
their departures have been delayed several times because they
have not been issued with visas by the Saudi Arabian embassy in
Jakarta.

Some people have had to spend their nights at the Pondok Gede
Haj Dormitory in East Jakarta, where intending pilgrims are
normally accommodated for one night before boarding their planes.

Ironically, those affected are mostly pilgrims who registered
in Jakarta. Only a few of the difficulties have been encountered
by pilgrims from other regions.

Officials at the Ministry of Religious Affairs were quick to
defend the Saudi embassy and absolved it from any blame. Instead,
they pointed to the local governments which, they said,
determined the order of departure.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs coordinates the annual haj
pilgrimage, including the flights.

The ministry's Director General for Islamic and Haj Affairs,
Amidhan, told reporters yesterday that the provincial government
should put those who are already in possession of a visa at the
top of the departures list, while those who do not yet have one
should be moved down the list.

"If there is chaos now, then that's because they have not
followed the order," he said.

Amidhan speculated that the chaos had occurred because some
people, with the help of insiders in provincial governments, were
trying to jump the queue.

Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher sent out a
radiogram yesterday to all governors which aimed to ensure that
the departures proceed in a more orderly fashion and give
priority to those who were already in possession of visa.

Delays have affected pilgrims on flight groups nos. 1,4,6,9,13
and 24. All of them are from Jakarta, according to a report by
Antara. There were also reports of some delays at other
embarkation points, including Medan, Surabaya, Ujungpandang and
Balikpapan, but they were not as serious as those experienced in
Jakarta.

The haj operation was launched last Monday. Garuda Indonesia
has been appointed to fly the pilgrims. The national carrier is
providing 25 wide-bodied jets for the operation in which it is
expected to fly 195,000 Indonesian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia by
May 2.

An official at the Haj Operation Command Post in Pondok Gede
said yesterday that because of the visa problems, some of the
Garuda flights that have departed from the Halim Perdanakusumah
airport in Jakarta were less than full. Altogether, he estimated
that more than 1,600 seats had been lost because of the chaos.

Amidhan said the government was prepared to extend the
transportation of the pilgrims beyond the May 2 deadline if it
had to as a result of the chaos. The main thing, he said, was
that the pilgrims should be in Saudi Arabia by May 8.

He said that everyone should have their visa by Tuesday.

Officials at the Ministry of Religious Affairs said that, as
of yesterday, the Saudi embassy in Jakarta had already issued
159,375 visas.

Meanwhile, hundreds of worried would-be pilgrims have been
flooding the city's Haj Office during the past day to check on
whether they have been issued with visas.

Some of them were there to complain that they had not been
able to leave on their appointed flight because they did not have
the visa.

"Five friends and I were supposed to be on the Thursday night
flight. But we couldn't go because of the problems with our
visas," said an employee of the City Administration who requested
anonymity.

The head of the Jakarta Haj Office, Soeyanto, told reporters
that some 8,000 of about 31,000 pilgrims from Jakarta had not yet
received a visa. "We're working to solve the problem," he said.

Some of the intending pilgrims had refused to depart unless
they could all go in one group, further complicating the flight
arrangements, Soeyanto said.

"Our group consists of 60 people. Ten of us have not received
a visa. We've decided we will not go until we can all leave
together," said Djamin bin Amid from East Jakarta.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Consumers' Foundation said yesterday
that it deplored the disorder afflicting this year's haj
departures. The foundation urged pilgrims to be more critical of
the organizers.

It is known that Indonesian pilgrims, in the past, have rarely
complained about the quality of the service that they have
received from the government, no matter how badly they have been
treated.

"The pilgrims should be able to differentiate between God's
will and bad management," the consumers' foundation said in a
statement. (29/yns)