Deaths add to heat on Saudis
Quake strikes Student on show Still searching
The crushing of more than 700 people near the Saudi holy city of Mecca, the worst tragedy at the haj pilgrimage in a quarter of a century, poses the latest political challenge for Saudi Arabia, a kingdom roiled by plunging oil prices and war.
Videos posted online showed dead bodies strewn across a street in Mina, a dusty encampment outside Islam’s holiest city, as other pilgrims sat in shock.
The stampede at a busy intersection happened on the first day of the Eid al-Adha religious holiday.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who is also the interior minister, has called for an investigation.
‘‘A lot of money has been spent in Mecca, so there will be questions about accountability,’’ Crispin Hawes, managing director of Teneo Intelligence, said.
‘‘This has the potential for a nasty political firestorm for the regime, and there will need to be a political response to what will be perceived as another egregious failure.’’
The disaster, in which at least 717 people died and more than 800 were injured, was the second surrounding the haj this month, despite the kingdom spending billions of dollars on expanding and securing its religious sites.
The government embarked on a US$21 billion (NZ$33b) programme in 2011 to expand the capacity of the Grand Mosque in Mecca to 2.5 million people.
About two weeks ago, a crane operated by the Saudi Binladin Group at the Grand Mosque collapsed, killing more than 100 people. The company said the accident was caused by strong winds. It has been barred from taking on new projects in the kingdom pending an investigation.
The tragedy in Mecca comes as Saudi Arabia under King Salman, who ascended to the throne in January, is embroiled in a deepening war in neighbouring Yemen while a slump in oil prices threatens it with the biggest deficit in decades.
The new king has brought in his own team, most prominently his son Mohammed bin Salman, who is in charge of defence and economic policy and is second in line to the throne. He’s behind Interior Minister Prince Mohammed, whose Civil Defence Directorate is responsible for providing security during the pilgrimage.
‘‘There may be political ramifications because this catastrophe will be boxed together with the crane incident,’’ Theodore Karasik, senior adviser at Gulf States Analytics, said.
After more than 120 people died in heavy flooding in December 2009, which displaced more than 22,000 others, the government only announced 16 months later that it was investigating more than 300 people over the incident.
Yesterday’s crush occurred as groups of pilgrims suddenly converged on the crossroads in Mina, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported. Hundreds of emergency workers were deployed and pilgrims were rerouted, it said.
Saudi Health Minister Khalid al-Falih suggested that the blame didn’t lie with official preparations for the event. The stampede was ‘‘possibly caused by the movement of some pilgrims who didn’t follow the guidelines and instructions issued by the responsible authorities’’, al-Falih said.
It wasn’t immediately clear where most of the dead pilgrims were from. Indonesia said two of its citizens were among the dead, while there were reports Pakistani fatalities as well.
‘‘It’s been a bad month for the image that the Saudis are trying to project, that they can protect the holy places,’’ said Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a political analyst focusing on the Gulf at Chatham House.
It gives the impression that ‘‘they can’t control the events for which they are responsible’’.
As the fifth and final pillar of Islam, every able-bodied adult Muslim must undertake a pilgrim-
of age to Mecca, birthplace of the Prophet Mohammed, at least once in their lives.
More than 2 million people are taking part in this year’s pilgrimage, which began on Wednesday.
There have been a number of stampedes over the years, including the deadliest in 1990, when 1426 pilgrims died in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel.
Authorities modified buildings and built new bridges after more than 300 people were killed in a crush in 2006.
‘‘It will likely be more difficult to pinpoint the cause of this tragedy,’’ said Fahad Nazer, a political analyst at consulting company JTG in Virginia, who has worked for the Saudi embassy in Washington. ‘‘A stampede is often the result of a minor infraction or accident that quickly spirals out of control.’’
While there were usually some fatalities at the haj, it had been almost 10 years since a major incident, and some of the credit for that should go to the Mecca governor, Prince Khalid Al Faisal, Nazer said.
‘‘Although the Saudi government has spent billions of dollars to ensure that the haj is as safe and as secure as possible, the sheer number of people moving – often on foot – from one site to another means that accidents are bound to happen periodically,’’ he said.
Washington Post-Bloomberg
More than 60 people have been injured and 200 houses damaged after a powerful earthquake rocked remote eastern Indonesia. The 6.6-magnitude undersea quake struck in the Papua region not far from the coastal city of Sorong. No deaths have so far been reported, but a disaster agency official warned that the number of victims could rise.
A South Korean citizen and resident of the United States who has been detained in North Korea for five months was presented to the media in Pyongyang yesterday, and said he has not been able to contact his family but wanted them to know he is healthy. Joo Won Moon, 21, is a student at New York University. He has admitted entering North Korea illegally in April, but it remains unclear if North Korea plans to prosecute him or release him to go home.
Mexico is to create a new special prosecutor for investigate the country’s thousands of missing people. President Enrique Pena Nieto made the promise after meeting with the families of 43 students who disappeared a year ago in southern Mexico. More than 25,000 people have disappeared since 2007, according to the government, but the students’ disappearance last September – and a botched government investigation into the incident – have brought the issue back into the spotlight.