Soeharto wants proper handling of haj pilgrimage

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto has said that pilgrims who are joining illegal haj tours to the holy land will be dealt with harshly, according to Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher.

"This is an old problem which has become urgent now," Tarmizi said Saturday after reporting the case to the president at the state palace.

The minister added that there are around 4,000 Indonesians who have left on "unauthorized" tours to join the pilgrimage and that many of them have already been arrested and put in detention by Saudi Arabian authorities.

"They have started to arrive (in Mecca) but we have them arrested so they will not be joining the pilgrimage," said Minister Tarmizi.

However, he said that he did not yet know the number of those who have been arrested.

According to the minister, the "illegal" hajs pose two problems for the Indonesian government.

"First, we have nearly reached our quota, with the number of this year's haj pilgrims at nearly 190,000 people. These were the figures we reported to the Saudi government during a meeting between the Indonesian and Saudi governments on April 6," he said.

However, the chairman of the Southeast Asian pilgrimage committee, Muhammad Syeh Muhammad Al-Indragiri, disclosed that bookings for 14,000 beds have been made by companies which handle "illegal" haj pilgrims from the region, according to the minister.

"Of that number, 10,000 are leaving through Singapore and another 4,000 through the Soekarno-Hatta airport," he said.

With the "illegal" haj pilgrims - officially called the green passport pilgrims - the total number of Indonesian pilgrims is 174,000.

"This means we have already violated the quota," said the minister.

According to the quota, one of every 1,000 Moslems can join the pilgrimage every year. The Indonesian government put the number of its Moslem population at around 170 million of the nation's 190 million people.

Secondly, said Tarmizi, the green passport pilgrims have created problems since last year. Specifically, they have been involved in quarrels with their agents, both those from Southeast Asia and their counterparts from Saudi Arabia.

"The president has ordered that they be flown back here by on the empty Garuda planes," he said.

Tarmizi said that the president has considered the problem and ordered that it be dealt with in a stern manner. He said that this was to prevent the situation from hurting the Indonesian government's haj operations, which have been considered well- organized by the Saudi government in the past.

According to Tarmizi, at the first meeting between the Indonesian and Saudi governments for the 1994 haj last September, the quota was set at 150,000. During that meeting, the Saudi's also told Indonesia of their wish to apply modern management methods in the handling of the haj pilgrims. They also stressed that they wanted to minimize the problems that usually occurred.

"In the second meeting in February we told the Saudi government that more than 160,000 had signed up for the pilgrimage. That's why the president ordered the new quota be observed and that certain profit-seeking people be brought under heel. This was to prevent Indonesia's reputation from being damaged," Tarmizi explained.

The Indonesian government has also intensified control over the green passport pilgrims. So far, of the 4,000 who planned to leave from the Soekarno-Hatta airport only 35 have been given a permit according to Tarmizi.

He urged the green passport haj pilgrims to cancel their plans and register for the 1995 government haj operations instead.

Eight

Minister Tarmizi also gave the president the number of Indonesian pilgrims who have died on the haj. So far, the number has reached eight.

"Since their departure on April 15, eight have died. Most of them were over 70 years old," he explained.

Two of the pilgrims died after they were hit by a taxi in Medina on Thursday, he added.

"But those two were also over 70 years old," he said.

The Indonesian government will finish flying the haj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia on May 14, he added.

Aside from discussing the haj pilgrims, the minister also reported that Indonesian haj pilgrims had donated Rp 2.2 billion to Bank Muamalat Indonesia in the past two years.

In other news, the minister also reported that the United Arab Emirate's Minister of Religious Affairs Syeh Muhammad Akhmad Had Radj would soon be arriving for a visit.

Minister Syeh Muhammad Akhmad will discuss efforts to promote cooperation in Islamic propagation and education between the two countries, said Tarmizi.

"Every year we send Koran readers and preachers to the Emirates and he has asked that the number be increased," said Tarmizi. (lem)