Eid tragedies
Pundits of the Arab press this week were overwhelmed by the tragic stampede in Mina and the massacre of Kurds in Irbil, writes Gamal Nkrumah
Disaster struck in Mina, near Mecca, where Muslim pilgrims performing the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca coinciding with the Feast of the Sacrifice, Eid Al-Adha, ritually hurl stones at pillars representing Satan. Panic spread after some pilgrims collapsed of exhaustion, and a deadly stampede ensued around the stoning area at Jamarat Bridge, Mina.
The Saudi daily Okaz , like most other Saudi publications, spotlighted the tragic event noting that a majority of the victims were Indonesians, Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis. Okaz stated that Saudi Arabia plans to redevelop Islam's holiest sites in Mecca and Medina following the Mina stampede that killed at least 251 pilgrims. The paper also repeated the call of the Saudi authorities on Muslim countries to cooperate more closely with the Saudi government to ensure safer and better-organised pilgrimages in the future.
Okaz reported that Saudi King Fahd ordered the creation of the Committee for the Development of Mecca and Madina to improve the infrastructural facilities in and around Islam's holiest sites. The paper noted that the committee will have its own budget, will be instructed to draft a new layout for Mina, which even before the disaster had been considered the area where pilgrims face the greatest hardship and danger during the hajj. According to Okaz, the redevelopment of Mina and other holy Islamic sites would take some 20 years to complete.
Saudi Arabia's Al-Jazeera urged Muslim unity. The paper quoted Saudi Hajj Minister Iyad Madani as saying that most of the pilgrims who died in the Mina stampede were "not organised". Al-Jazeera noted that the Saudi authorities had urged pilgrims to perform the stoning ritual at different set times and that the aim was to control the number of pilgrims performing the ritual at any given time by setting quotas largely based on nationality.
As many Saudi papers noted, that this was not the first time such a stampede occurred at Mina. In 1994, a similar stampede during the stoning ritual claimed the lives of around 270 pilgrims.
Saudi papers also covered other topics ranging from the United States-led war against international terrorism to developments in Iraq. "Terrorism is the product of a sick mind," declared an editorial of Saudi Arabia's Al-Riyadh. The paper also noted that security measures were stepped up in the kingdom during the hajj season.
Al-Watan of Saudi Arabia looked in some detail at the rising death toll in Iraq. The paper also quoted General John Abuzaid, commander of the US Central Command in Iraq as saying that civil war might erupt in Iraq if US troops depart. Other papers also spotlighted the Eid Al-Adha massacre in Iraqi Kurdistan. The London-based pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat ran the headline "Bloody Eid in the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan". The paper also commented on Sunday's suicide attacks in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil which left almost 70 Kurds dead. Suicide bombers apparently blew themselves up at the meeting halls of the two main Kurdish political parties -- the Kurdish Democratic Party led by Masoud Barazani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan headed by Jalal Talabani. The paper reported that visitors crowded the offices of these two organisations to congratulate senior party officials on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha when the bombs went off.
Asharq Al-Awsat quoted Paul Bremer, the chief US civilian administrator in Iraq, as describing the Irbil suicide bombing as a "cowardly attack on innocent human beings". Bremer was also quoted as saying that the "perpetrators of the Irbil massacre would be found and brought to justice." Kurdish officials blamed Al-Qa'eda for the Irbil attack, and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, himself an ethnic Kurd, pointed an accusing finger at Ansar Al-Islam, a militant Islamist group closely aligned to Al-Qa'eda.
Another London-based pan-Arab paper, Al- Hayat, speculated that the Irbil massacre was in retaliation for the detention of Hassan Al-Ghoul, a suspected leading Al-Qa'eda figure in Iraq. The paper also noted that the two Kurdish leaders Al- Barzani and Al-Talabani said that the suicide bombings in Irbil will speed up Kurdish unity talks. Al-Hayat reported the leaders as saying in a joint statement that they strongly supported a federal system of government for Iraq.
Al-Hayat gave considerable coverage to non- Arab news. In a commentary by Tunisian writer Salahuddin Al-Gourchi entitled "Iran: Has the time for reviewing the Velayt-e-Faqih?", the system of government involving rule by Shi'ite clerics. The writer questioned the democratic credentials of the Iranian theocracy and pointed out that it has resulted in combustible social tensions, "After a quarter of a century of theocratic rule, Iranians are forced to undertake fundamental political reforms," Al-Gourchi explained.
Algeria's Al-Khabar lamented the death in Mecca of 11 Algerian pilgrims during the ritual stoning ceremony at the Jamarat Bridge, Mina. Al-Khabar also highlighted the predicament of one other large non-Arab ethnic group in the Arab world apart from the Kurds of Iraq, the Berber people of North Africa. The paper, like much of the Algerian press, focussed on the suspension of talks between the Algerian government and leaders of the country's ethnic Berber communities following a row over the status of the Tamazight language.
Al-Khabar reported that Algeria's Berber communities demand official recognition of the Tamazight language, a status equal to that of the Arabic language and full recognition of the Berber separate cultural identity. Berber leaders, the paper said, have threatened to boycott the Algerian presidential elections scheduled for April if their demands are not met.
The Syrian daily Tishreen focussed on Syria's economic liberalisation policies and implementation of privatisation and economic deregulation plans in Syria. The paper also spotlighted Syrian-Lebanese relations.
Al-Bayan of the United Arab Emirates ran a sensationalist front page headline predicting tribal warfare between Kurds, Arabs and Turkomans in northern Iraq around the rich oil fields of Kirkuk. Al-Bayan also made much of how US troops this week failed to capture Azza Ibrahim, the top- ranking remaining fugitive from the ousted Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. In much the same melodramatic vein, the paper revealed that the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had asked the Americans if he could offer the former Iraqi leader political asylum.
