Mina victims won't be sent home: Ministry

Mina victims won't be sent home: Ministry

A. Junaidi and ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Surabaya

Hopes of Indonesian families to take a last glimpse of 52 of
their family members who were killed in Sunday's stampede in Mina
near Mecca, Saudi Arabia, are fading as the victims will soon
buried there.

"It's almost impossible to fly home the bodies of the
Indonesian pilgrims for burial because Saudi Arabia's regulations
require the victims to be buried in Mecca," haj information head
at the Ministry of Religious Affairs Nunun Firdaus said on
Tuesday.

Apart from that, he said, the Indonesian government would not
demand that the bodies of its 52 citizens be buried in their home
country.

The government will give permission to the Saudi Arabian
government to bury the Indonesian victims in the Ma'la cemetery
in Mecca, Nunun added.

The bodies of the 52 Indonesian victims, among the 244
pilgrims from across the world who died in the stampede during a
ritual to stone the devil in Mina, are currently being kept at
Muashim Hospital morgue in Mina.

Several families of the victims urged the government on Monday
to fly home the bodies of their relatives for burial.

However, Indonesian victims killed in previous similar
accidents during pilgrimage rituals in Mecca were not brought
home for burial.

According to Islamic faith, the body of a Muslim should be
buried not more than one day after his or her death, unless there
are strong reasons to delay the burial.

Many Indonesian Muslims also believe that a Muslim who dies in
Mecca and other holy sites while on pilgrimage can be called a
martyr and that the soul will go directly to heaven.

However, many ulema disagree with such a belief.

Exceptions have been made for certain Indonesian figures,
including independence fighter Sutomo or Bung Tomo who died in
1981 during the holy journey in Arafah, Saudi Arabia. His body
was flown home and buried in his hometown of Surabaya, East Java.

Also, the body of then attorney general Baharuddin Lopa, who
died of a heart attack in Mecca in July 2002, was also flown home
for burial. Lopa once served as the Indonesian ambassador to
Saudi Arabia.

Sunday's stampede was not the first. In 1990 more than 562
Indonesians were among the 1,500 pilgrims trampled to death in
Mina. And 274 pilgrims, including six Indonesians, died in a
similar incident in the same place in 1994.

Nunun further said the 52 Indonesian victims have all been
identified and that there was only one Indonesian woman currently
being treated at King Faishal Hospital in Mecca for injuries.

"We believe there are no more Indonesian victims," he said.

Nunun said the government sent on Tuesday the data of those
who died in Mecca to Bumiputra insurance company on behalf of the
bereaved families.

"We hope the families of the victims will receive payment
soon," he added.

The government said the victims would each receive an amount
equivalent to twice the cost of their pilgrimage, which averaged
US$2,750.

Meanwhile, chairman of the largest Muslim organization
Nahdlatul Ulama Hasyim Muzadi urged the Indonesian and Saudi
Arabian governments on Tuesday to improve the technical
procedures in the stone-throwing ritual in Mina.

"The incident could have been avoided if the technicalities of
the rituals were improved," he told journalists in Surabaya.

Hasyim said that Indonesian haj leaders should repeatedly
notify pilgrims about the schedules of rituals to prevent similar
incidents from recurring.

In Mecca, authorities promised changes to prevent further
tragedies at the site.

About two million people are participating in this year's
event, including 205,000 from Indonesia, the world's most
populous Muslim nation.

On Tuesday, pilgrims gradually began dispersing near pillars
at the scene of the deadly stampede, finishing up a devil-stoning
ritual, then cramming buses to journey to the holy city of Mecca
to complete their pilgrimage.

Waves of pilgrims poured into Islam's holy city of Mecca on
Tuesday for the last rites of the pilgrimage, with the faithful
circling the sacred stone, the Kaaba, and reveling in a feeling
of rebirth, AFP reported.

Pilgrims converged on the shrine at the center of the Grand
Mosque, the last day before returning home. Many said they felt
reborn by the experience, meant to wash away all sins.

Buses and cars of pilgrims arrived in Mecca from the tent city
of Mina, bringing the city alive with a cacophony of honking
horns. It also closed three-days of pelting the pillars that
symbolize the devil.