JEDDAH, 15 January 2006 — Diplomats in Jeddah suggested that a designated website be created for publishing the pictures of unidentified bodies.
This will help the relatives to identify the victims. This will also help the relatives in respective countries to help in the identification process, they said.
They say not every victim has a relative in Jeddah or in other parts of the Kingdom. In many cases, the pilgrims coming from far-flung areas of Indian subcontinent or South Asia are not even aware of the tragedy. A lot of victims who are yet to be identified have no relatives here to identify them.
Saudi authorities believe that people should conduct the identification process by visiting the Al-Muaisem morgue where pictures of the victims have been displayed.
“It is very difficult for a person in the Eastern Province to come to Jeddah first, then go to Mina and the mortuary to identify the victims. I am getting a lot of calls from my brother in Peshawar to find out the whereabouts of my sister who is missing along with her husband. I tried to contact the hotline provided by the government. They have taken down my number and said they will contact me. But 24 hours later I am still waiting for a word from them,” a Pakistani expatriate said.
“I wonder how they will be able to identify my sister if she is not wearing the identity bracelet or does not have any other identification document. I wish the pictures of the dead which are already posted on the walls of the Mina mortuary were available on the Internet,” he added.
He suggested that pictures could alternatively be printed in local newspapers for the relatives to identify their loved ones. Saudi authorities say that it is unethical to publish the pictures of the dead.
They are still relying on the traditional methods of identification. It is precisely because of this that 144 victims are still to be identified, he pointed out.
Diplomats also suggested that the services of the expatriate community and organizations should be utilized to help identify the dead from their respective areas. A security officer at the Mina mortuary smashed the camera of a Haj mission official in Mina yesterday when he took a picture of the photos of the stampede victims displayed there, saying it was illegal.
