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)