People jostle over meat at Istiqlal Grand Mosque

People jostle over meat at Istiqlal Grand Mosque

JAKARTA (JP): The Day of Sacrifice, meant to be a show of
compassion and brotherhood, turned into a stampede on Monday as
around 2,000 poor people fought for slices of meat at the
Istiqlal Grand Mosque in Central Jakarta.

While there were no fatalities, several people received minor
injuries during the stampede.

The chaos meant that many people who had lined up for the free
meat to take home to their families went away with nothing.
Others took advantage of the furor to help themselves to as much
meat as they could carry.

"I got this much, not bad... I will sell some of this," one
man told Antara as he left the mosque.

The man was only wearing an undershirt because he had taken
off his T-shirt to wrap up about seven kilograms of meat.

A kilogram of beef costs almost Rp 30,000, which is
unaffordable for low-income people in the city, where the minimum
monthly wage is only slightly more than Rp 400,000.

Some people who did not receive any of the free meat became
irate and destroyed the tables on which the meat was kept.

The incident occurred because people were afraid they would
not receive any meat. The number of cows and goats meant for
sacrifice was only half of last year's number, while there were
more people waiting in line to receive the meat.

This year, the mosque slaughtered seven cows and 10 goats.
Among the cows were those contributed by President Abdurrahman
Wahid, Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri, Coordinating
Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono and Minister of Religious Affairs Tolchah
Hassan.

Only three of the seven cows were slaughtered on Monday. The
other four are scheduled to be slaughtered on Tuesday, with the
meat being distributed to orphanages, charities and foundations.

Twelve cows and 25 goats were slaughtered at the mosque last
year.

As soon as the Day of Sacrifice prayer ended at about 8 a.m.,
hundreds of poor people flocked to the mosque to receive the free
meat.

Those hoping to receive the meat first had to get a coupon,
which they could then exchange for a kilogram of meat.

The cows were slaughtered on the grounds of the mosque, with
the meat being put into plastic bags which were to be then handed
out to those in line.

But as more and more people arrived, the situation became
chaotic. Some of the people in the crowd began to shout at
security guards, and then people began to shove each other.

The crowd grew impatient as they waited for the butchers to
finish slaughtering the cows and goats.

As people began to push against the iron fence separating
them from the slaughter yard, several police officers appealed
for calm, but it was to no avail. The people rushed into the
slaughter yard and took whatever they could.

Several people were injured in the melee. "I am concerned with
what happened to those people. Yes, the meat is their right, but
we did not like what they did," said one mosque official.

When the situation was again under control, the third cow was
slaughtered.

Eleven butchers were hired by the mosque. They were paid Rp
90,000 for each cow they slaughtered, and Rp 8,000 for each goat.

Atho Mudzhar, the rector of Yogyakarta's Sunan Kalijaga
Institute of Islamic Studies, said earlier in his sermon at the
mosque that poverty was the main enemy of the Indonesian nation.
(jun/sim)