Pilgrims unaware of devil-pelting schedule

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.