At least twenty-one people were trampled to death and scores more injured when a crowd stampeded in Indonesia after thousands of people queued for a charity handout to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the state news agency Antara reported on Monday. The crush happened in the East Java town of Pasuruan when a philanthropist, identified by Antara as H. Syaichon, distributed tithes and food to a crowd of poor people. The impoverished were waiting for a food donation, known as zakat, worth about 30,000 rupiah ($3.18) each when the stampede occurred.
Some people collapsed due to a lack of oxygen in the crush, while others were trampled, the report said, adding the injured were being treated in a nearby hospital.
No good deed goes unpunished
Pasuruan Mayor Aminurrohman visited the injured at the hospital and said Syaichon had failed to coordinate his donation activities with municipal security and administration officials, according to Antara news agency.
"Syaichon`s initiative to distribute tithes to the poor was good and noble but the way he did it was wrong because it ended up with at least 21 fatalities," Aminurrohman said, adding that Syaichon was at present being questioned at the Pasuruan police office.
In previous years, his Ramadan handouts also caused some problems when dozens of people fainted, but there were no deaths, according to the report.
Witnesses said at first the distribution went smoothly and everyone received their allotment. But mayhem broke out when thousands of people arrived and rushed forward to get their ration through a narrow alley, causing many, especially elderly women, to be trampled.
Zakat, or alms, is one of the five pillars of Islam that exemplifies its focus on social and economic justice. It is obligatory for all Muslims with the means and usually paid before the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
Many poor people in mostly Muslim Indonesia depend on these funds for several months.
According to the World Bank, 18 percent of Indonesians lived below the poverty in 2006, the most recent figures available.