Indonesia prays for the end of disasters

The country has been grappling with a string of natural disasters

JAKARTA: The president, ministers, top officials and thousands of people of Indonesia prayed on Friday in the biggest mosque in the capital of Jakarta, for an end to the rampant catastrophes that have claimed hundreds and thousands of lives.

Led by Imam Nazarudin Umar, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Transport Minister Hatta Rajasa, Police chief General Sutanto and other ministers, along with civilians, attended the special service after the Friday prayer.

“Disasters have ravaged our nation. Oh God, please pardon us for the mistakes that we have made,” said the imam on the praying.

The Indonesian government has done with all its strength to cope with the rampant accidents in transport and natural disasters that have occurred since years ago and killed thousands of people.

In doing so, the government allocated huge resources, resulting in the slowdown of the economic growth of the biggest economy in the Southeast Asia.

Indonesia is the biggest Muslim country in the world, in which 87 per cent of its 240 million populations are Muslims, most of them moderate.

After hit by series of terrorist strikes, the country has been grappling with a string of natural disasters, mass-transport accidents and outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and bird flu.