Tarmizi Taher names culprit for haj mess

Tarmizi Taher names culprit for haj mess

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher
blamed last month's controversy over the sending of haj pilgrims,
which at one time nearly threatened to become a diplomatic row
with Saudi Arabia, on a leading tour operator.

Yesterday, Tarmizi named Ande Abdul Latief, director of the
Tiga Utama agency which organizes upscale haj tours, as the
author of last month's chaos.

Latief was summoned to the minister's office yesterday to
explain his behavior to him and a group of journalists. Latief
was then send over for a press conference with Saudi Ambassador
Abdullah Abdurrahman Alim, creating further confusion, the
minister said.

He said the journalists were used to set the ambassador
against the government.

Tiga Utama is one of the operators licensed by the government
to organize the so-called VIP haj pilgrimage, offering more
expensive but more luxurious travel than what was arranged by the
government. Among its clients were the first family who went on
the pilgrimage in 1991.

"I think he has become too big for his own good," Tarmizi said
when asked about the high standing of Tiga Utama.

The haj operation was nearly disrupted last month amidst
allegations that the Saudi government was rounding up and
deporting Indonesians who did not travel under the government's
organized program. The controversy then turned into an exchange
of words, through the media, between Tarmizi and Abdullah.

Later investigations found that the controversy started with a
fake phone call, purportedly from a Saudi official, to the
Indonesian ambassador in Riyadh saying that some Indonesian
pilgrims had been arrested.

Tarmizi appealed to the 20 tour operators licensed to send haj
pilgrims, saying that they too had a responsibility in
maintaining the good relations between Indonesia and Saudi
Arabia.

Meanwhile, Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto
yesterday rejected demands that private airliners be allowed to
fly the pilgrims, which is the monopoly of flag carrier Garuda
Indonesia.

"Managing the haj is not a simple task. A lot of preparations
go into it, including leasing the aircraft and working out the
flight schedules with the Saudi authorities," Haryanto told
reporters yesterday.

The ruling faction, Golkar, had earlier proposed to end
Garuda's monopoly on haj flights to help improve the efficiency
of the operation.

Haryanto said Garuda had done a good job and that delays that
had occurred were to be expected given the scale of the task.

Garuda Indonesia deployed 20 planes, 18 of them leased from
foreign airlines, for the task of flying some 160,000 Indonesian
pilgrims to Saudi Arabia and back. (emb/icn)