Bangkok--Jan 13--eTurboNews
In Mecca, 345 pilgrims were killed and 289 others injured after, yet again, another stampede that seems to happen more frequently, year after year without fail. Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Interior confirmed the casualties from a stampede at the entrance of the Jamarat Bridge in Mina, where thousands of pilgrims were heading towards the location for the ritual of stoning of Satan. Ministry of Interior spokesman Maj. Gen. Eng. Mansour Al-Turki said that the tragic accident was caused by the sheer number of pilgrims who came to Jamarat to perform the stoning ritual at noon. Al-Turki said that the large amount of luggage the pilgrims carried with them was also a factor.
According to the Royal Embassy in Washington, Saudi Health Minister Dr. Hamad al-Manie confirmed injuries were minor, and that a large number of the injured pilgrims were treated and released. Security forces immediately cordoned off the area to aid the pilgrims involved in the stampede. Until the evening, rescue efforts were ongoing. Emergency teams from a number of agencies including the National Guard rushed to the scene. Process of dispatching the pilgrims in groups for the pebble-throwing ritual was halted.
Further to the embassy, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Interior spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki created a hotline at the emergency center in Mina to answer questions relating to the tragic stampede at the Jamarat Bridge today. The hotline is 966 (2) 5572830. As dialed from the United States, the number is 011-966(2) 5572830.
In 2004, some 244 died in a stampede early in the morning in Makkah. Again during the Hajj commemorating the first day of the Eid Al Adha feast, disaster struck at 8 a.m. on the pilgrims' return to Mina. After a night spent in Muzdalifah, after standing at the Arafat, people were trampled to death and hundreds sustained wounds and other bodily injuries. Saudi officials said the flow had been smooth until the tragic incident that Sunday during the stoning of the devil ritual. Minister of Pilgrimage Iyad Madani said, "All precautions were taken to prevent such incident, but this is God's will. Caution is not stronger than fate. The condition of all hurt, except seven or eight admitted to various hospitals in Makkah, was not serious. At the site, action was immediately taken by the security forces and health personnel to prevent further casualties.
Authorities stopped the stoning ceremony at nine at which point, about half of the million pilgrims scheduled for the day had already completed the ritual.
Most of the victims not immediately identified were unlicensed pilgrims. In 2005, nearly 12 percent of the 2,300,000 or so pilgrims who came into the kingdom to perform Umrah (the minor pilgrimage) overstayed their visas; schedule for pebble-throwing does not include such non-licensed pilgrims.
The traffic overflow due to unaccounted pilgrims caused most of the stampedes during Hajj. 2005's official number of pilgrims was 1,892,710, the vast majority from abroad, with 473,004 from inside the kingdom, most of them non-Saudis. Minister Madani commented that prior to the tragic incident, there had been less deaths during the Hajj, as a result of disease, old age or exhaustion.
Eid in Islam conjures up a number of meanings. The Custodian of the Holy Mosques referred to it as the building of bridges of mercy and kindness to achieve brotherhood among Muslims and to bring unity to the Muslim world through good deeds and refraining from extravagance, extremism, and terrorism.
HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, secretary-general for the Supreme Commission of Tourism for the kingdom said that Saudi Arabia is moving on with his tourism agenda. "Mecca (and Medina) have seen a major increase in terms of people wanting to visit. If Saudi tries to reduce those numbers, we've already seen what has happened in the Islamic world with incoming traffic." But there is always a carrying capacity - they will not be able to satisfy the numbers of those who want to come.
The Saudi government has been looking at the issue on capacity. "Left with the thought of a sense of place, Mecca has gone through many phases since the building of the Kaaba," added the Prince. Signages in the Haram in Madina should be looked at. The government has established the national commission for Mecca and Madina with the chairman of the commission looking into matters closely."
Further he added: "We are not dependent on outside tourism. The biggest component of inbound tourism we have is related to the Hajj which experiences no violent incidences. In fact the flow is even increasing. In 2005, the tourism occupancy in Mecca was about 100 percent or over."
During the first nine months of 2005, the expenditure of the kingdom's inbound tourists was totaled at SR15.1 billion. Tourists spent 78 million nights.
The number of international inbound flights reached 6.3 million. There has been a marked increase from previous years which generated 26.8 million arrivals with 166.7 million nights booked at a total spend of SR27.2 billion.
If the tourism policy is carefully implemented, Saudi Arabia cannot go wrong. Globally, it has a captive audience of nearly 1.2 billion Muslims who are obliged to perform the Hajj, the main pilgrimage, at least once in their lives, if it is within their means. The Umrah is traditionally performed in the 8th month of the Muslim calendar just before the fasting month of Ramadan. The Hajj is performed in the last month of the Islamic calendar.
There is no equivalent in the Roman calendar as the dates of the Islamic lunar calendar vary from year to year. Combined, Hajj and Umrah pilgrims total about 6.3 million, generating $9.64 billion in earnings according to Prince Sultan.
Since a huge percentage of visits to Saudi is widely attributed to the Hajj and the bigger pilgrimage of Umrah, why can't there be less disasters such as yesterday's and before?
Unfortunately, part of the action seems to be the inevitable stampede year on year.
(US$1=SAUDI RIYAL 3.75)
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