Pilgrims unaware of devil-pelting schedule
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Yogyakarta
The deaths of 54 Indonesian pilgrims in Sunday's stampede in Mina near Mecca, Saudi Arabia, have been blamed in part on the poor management of the schedule for the country's pilgrims to perform a devil-stoning ritual there.
Some Indonesian pilgrims claimed on Wednesday they were not notified about the day or the time allocated for them to conduct the stoning ritual in Mina.
"No one told us about a schedule. We just arranged with our group to perform the stoning ritual," an Indonesian pilgrim, Arman Syam, told The Jakarta Post by phone from Mecca.
He said his group missed the stampede because it had decided to wait for a time when not so many people crammed the stoning site in Mina.
Learning from past tragedies, the Saudi government had allocated different days and times for pilgrims from countries across the globe to carry out the stoning ritual.
Indonesian pilgrims and those from other Southeast Asian countries were given between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m local time on Sunday to throw stones at three pillars at the site.
The Mina tragedy, which killed at least 244 pilgrims including 54 Indonesians, took place at around 11 a.m. or 3 p.m. Western Indonesian time, when about two million Muslims crammed into the ritual site.
The Indonesian casualties could have been avoided if the victims abided by the schedules set for their rituals.
Such arrangements were set in order for Asian pilgrims to avoid the heavy rush with those from other continents, who have bigger builds, officials said.
Dani, an Indonesian haj group leader in Mecca, confirmed Arman's statement, saying that she did not receive information about the schedule for the stoning ritual.
"Nor had other group leaders been notified of it. We usually just arrange it with our own group," she said.
A similar assertion was made by Edi K.R., who said he and his Indonesians colleagues were only informed of three good times to carrying out the stoning ritual.
The better (afdhol) time is in the morning until around noon, he added.
Indonesian survivor Tinggih, 54, from South Sulawesi recalled that the fatal accident started when Turkish pilgrims forced their way into the stoning site, while at the same time an African group was getting out of the huge crowd after carrying out the ritual.
But an African woman lost her grip on her husband and was swept away by the flow of Turkish pilgrims, Tinggih was quoted by Antara as saying in Mecca.
As the woman was directly trampled there, her husband who had managed to get out of the frenzied crowd became hysterical and entered the crowd again and started beating Turkish nationals.
A clash then broke out at the scene with hundreds of pilgrims stampeding and many of them collapsing.
Tinggih said he saw dozens of Indonesian pilgrims trampled at the ritual site.
Meanwhile, chairman of the country's second largest Muslim organization Muhammadiyah Syafii Maarif urged the Indonesian government on Wednesday to lodge a protest with the Saudi Arabian government for its poor management that has been blamed for repeated stampedes during pilgrimage rituals.
"It's ridiculous that the tragedy is often considered God's will. It happens because of the poor haj management," he said in Yogyakarta.
Syafii said the government should first use diplomatic channels to demand an improvement in the haj management before lodging a formal protest.
He also said the commercialization of the haj as seen by the high cost of the pilgrimage should be stopped.