Saudi neglect, mismanagement taking toll on Hajj pilgrims: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Jalal Fairooz, a political commentator in London, to ask for his take on the fatal stamped in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca, at the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

Following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: There are calls already saying that the Saudis are responsible, because of lack of management, and we have seen this being another deadly situation taking place during this year’s Hajj. How much of this responsibility actually you think lies on mismanagement and how much does it lie on the vast numbers of people that are present at one place at the same time?

Fairooz: The people who go to perform pilgrimage in Mecca pay huge amount of money for the visa, for all the facilities, which they are occupying when they are there. For lots of these services the Saudis are charging a lot of money.

This money should be for improving the situation in Mecca and the pilgrimage areas - the thing which is not being seen.

Year after year, every single year, you can see people die because of the negligence, the lack of management, mismanagement, and corruption. Where does all the money go? The thing is that it is a simple engineering and administration task which can be achieved.

I have been in Mecca and I have seen with my eyes how things are mismanaged. The roads are really terrible. You could see a big road is empty. Why? Because it is solely for the emirs, and for the princes who go to the pilgrimage, and all the crowds are cramped into a single street. It is only seven kilometers from Mashar to Mina. It takes people four hours, imagine four hours, for seven kilometers. The traffic does not move. Even when the trains were introduced, they have been very much away, the elderly cannot go. They still have to use the same old road even this year. Only this year, you could see these big incidents, catastrophes, which happened.

First, all these big casualties of the negligence of having a huge crane on top of head of thousands of pilgrims. Yes, it will fall! Because of not keeping the safety measurements. And then the hotel fire, and then the avalanche which killed some people. Now, today, you could see how there is no care for the safety of pilgrimage, but there is care of calling the people unbelievers.

There are lots of things which can be achieved if there would be a mutual understanding with all the Islamic countries and a joint committee to supervise the Hajj not the same as it is. It is really bad management year after year.

Press TV: Do you think there have been some proposals saying that the Saudis actually should not be in charge of Mecca and Medina, and it should be in the hands of international Muslim committees, individuals or entities from various countries? How likely is that to happen and would it make a difference?

Fairooz: Two things can be done: Either Mecca and Medina have to be called international cities just like the Vatican, for example, and some international sites, which are being governed. For example, the Polish guards are guarding the Vatican; or at least the management and the technical aspects of the pilgrimage have to be dealt with by an Islamic joint group of technical and administrative staff. This will help the Saudis themselves, because they will not be embarrassed. It seems that they will never be embarrassed with all these lives which are being lost year after year.

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