Tarmizi and Saudi envoy clear up `misunderstanding'

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher met with Saudi Arabia envoy Abdullah Abdurrahman Alim in an apparent move to resolve the rift that has grown between the two men in the past week over Indonesia's administration of haj pilgrims.

"We've cleared up the misunderstanding between us," Tarmizi told reporters after the meeting at his office.

"The two parties agreed that the misunderstanding occurred because each had different information," he said stressing that they agreed that good relations between the two countries had not been harme, the Antara news agency reported.

Ambassador Abdullah last week called a press conference to deny Tarmizi's claim that the Saudi authorities had been arresting Indonesian haj pilgrims traveling on ordinary green passports.

This prompted the minister to counter the denial, stressing that his information came from the Indonesian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, who in turn received his information from the Saudi authorities.

There were also claims and counterclaims about the presence of 14,000 green passport pilgrims, and Tarmizi again cited that the figure originated with the Saudi's.

A number of politicians joined in the fray by calling on the minister to resign from his post, but the controversy ebbed after Tarmizi said that he had his facts rights.

Asked by reporters about the situation about the 14,000 pilgrims, Tarmizi shrugged off the question. "This is a sensitive issue. Let's say the misunderstanding has now been cleared."

"The main thing now is to ensure that the people can perform their pilgrimage without any problem," he added.

Tarmizi said the government would try to ensure that every pilgrim could leave for Saudi Arabia.

Threat

Tarmizi had suggested that the presence of the 14,000 green passport pilgrims was a threat to the passage of some 158,000 pilgrims traveling on the government-sponsored program, because Indonesia has been allocated a quota of 160,000 pilgrims by the Saudi government.

Officials have said the green passport pilgrims will be issued special permission from the Ministry of Religious Affairs for as long as the quota permits.

The problems surfaced chiefly because of the unexpected huge jump in the number of Indonesians joining in the government- sponsored pilgrimage, from 123,000 last year to 158,000.

Tarmizi said during earlier negotiations with the Saudi authorities regarding the quota, he asked for 160,000 in accordance with the rule of one pilgrim for every 1,000 Moslems in a population.

Indonesia was not subjected to a quota previously because the number of pilgrims barely reached the maximum limit permitted by the Saudi government, he said.

Given the growing interest in the haj, Indonesia may ask for a quota of 200,000 in 1995, he added.

To avoid a repetition of this year's problem, the government also plans to regulate green passport pilgrims, the minister said. (emb)