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.