Soeharto wants proper handling of haj pilgrimage

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)