Saudi Arabia envoy upset at haj reports
Saudi Arabia envoy upset at haj reports
JAKARTA (JP): Saudi Arabian Ambassador Abdullah Abdul Rahman Alim has said he was upset over news reports which appeared to have blamed the embassy for the glitches in the ongoing haj operation.
"I was very angry reading the news reports," he told reporters yesterday after handing the final 60,000 visas for the 195,000 Indonesian pilgrims to Indonesian officials.
He denied that the embassy had been late in issuing the visas because it had been overloaded by the 50,000 applications for visas for umrah, the minor pilgrimage, last month, as suggested by some Indonesian officials.
"The processing of umrah visas has not interfered with that of the haj visas," he said. The embassy issues three kinds of visas: for the haj pilgrimage, for umrah, and for workers.
He rejected reports that some of the canceled and delayed flights, as well as other glitches in the operation of flying out the haj pilgrims, were caused by the embassy's failure to produce visas on time.
"None of those delayed flights were not caused by the embassy," he said.
He pointed out that the embassy had issued 135,000 visas, which should have been enough for the early flights to proceed smoothly.
He pleaded that reports which appeared to place the blame for the hiccups in the haj operation on the embassy be stopped.
Director General for Islamic and Haj Affairs Ahmad Gozali strove to end the blaming game by stating that "everything is the responsibility of the Ministry of Religious Affairs".
The ministry yesterday issued a statement by Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher which said, among other things: "The embassy of Saudi Arabia has worked day and night to process the remaining visas, and Insya Allah (God willing) will continue to coordinate with the ministry to improve the haj operation".
Tarmizi said that an examination of the current operation has revealed that problems emerged because "the ministry was too optimistic".
The office made various plans before the visas were issued, he pointed out.
Meanwhile, reports about problems in the dispatching of the pilgrims were still pouring in yesterday. The Antara news agency said that as many 355 prospective pilgrims who were scheduled to leave yesterday failed to do so because none of them could enter the haj dormitory as they lacked some of the necessary documents.
Quoting an official from the national flag-carrier Garuda Indonesia, Djohansyah, Antara said the flight had to be canceled because pilgrims who already have visas refused to go in the place of the non-visas passengers.
This brought the number of canceled flights to nine. The pilgrims are scheduled to be flown out over the next few weeks in 453 flights. (01)