ON PILGRIMS PERISHED IN MECCA








ABU DHABI, March 6, 2001 /from RIA Novosti correspondent Igor  Kuznetsov/ -- The Russian Consulate General in Jidda /Saudi Arabia/ has no information so far as to whether there were citizens of Russia among the pilgrims who perished on Monday. 


	As has been already reported, thirty-five people died in the crush on the pedestrian bridge in the Mina valley leading to the stone pillars symbolising Iblis-devil. Part of the pilgrims died of suffocation, part was trampled down by the crowd, and several others fell from the bridge. 


	The director general of the Saudi Civil Defence Service said that the accident had happened because the pilgrims, who  performed  the rite of throwing stones at the devil, started to move in the direction from which other pilgrims were coming. He could not  name the total figure of the perished and their ethnicity. 


	Health Minister of Saudi Arabia Usama Shubukshi said that according to his data, in all 90 people died since the beginning of the hajj. According to the minister, a 92-year-old man and a 82-year-old woman died a natural death. 


	However, the Moslems believe that death during the hajj is honourable and the souls of the dead immediately find themselves in the paradise. 


	In 1990, 1,416 pilgrims were crushed in the underpass in Mecca; among them were citizens of the USSR. 


	In April 1998, a tragedy also occurred on the pedestrian bridge as a result of which 118 pilgrims died and 180 were  injured. -O- (kos/ant) 


	06/03/01    10:04