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)