Sana’a cemeteries cause problems for mourners and government [Archives:2008/1139/Last Page]
By: Almigdad Dahesh Mojalli
[email protected]
Yemenis try their best to have clean, well-kept accommodations in their average daily life, but in Sana'a, it's becoming more difficult to find those same qualities in their final home – the cemetery.
In the past few years, many Sana'a citizens have complained of new financial problems involving cemeteries, in addition to the destruction and corrosion gravesites already face. The capital city has become the most expensive place in all of Yemen to buy a gravesite, according to indicators from the Ministry of Endowments.
Situations causing particular concern are gravediggers who extort the relatives of the not-yet-interred and price hikes regarding burial sites, which recently have exceeded YR 10,000 at some cemeteries such as Majel Al-Demah, Al-Mashhad and Al-Nojaimat.
This is on top of the regular issues to which graveyards are exposed, such as erosion, collapse and destruction due to flood rains, sewer pipes redirecting sewage into cemeteries and general negligence by concerned authorities.
“My father was in the hospital for six months, so when he died, I was out of money,” complained 25-year-old Badr Al-Jabri, “When I went to Al-Mashhad Cemetery to purchase a grave for him, the grave digger requested YR 12,000 for it, so I was forced to borrow that sum from my friends.”
There have been numerous complaints at Majel Al-Demah and Al-Mashhad Cemeteries about gravediggers who are unsympathetic toward grieving family and friends, instead seizing the chance to extort extra money exceeding the Ministry of Endowments' gravesite price, which is YR 3,500 per grave.
The Sana'a-based ministry doesn't deny the problem, with office manager Mohammed Al-Ashwal affirming that he has received numerous complaints about graveside extortion.
He notes that his office launched an investigation of Sana'a cemeteries last September, arresting 26 gravediggers who later were released after signing contracts agreeing never again to extort money from mourners.
However, Al-Ashwal says extortion still exists. His office received complaints about gravediggers at Al-Nojaimat Cemetery and hence, launched another investigation resulting in the arrest of 15 employees there.
He requests that the public inform his office of any violations, noting that his office won't hesitate to punish violators.
At most, there are 25 cemeteries in the city of Sana'a and most already are full, particularly the large ones such as Khozaimah, Majel Al-Demah, Al-Nojaimat and Ishat Al-Ra'adi.
According to one employee at the Endowments Ministry, the reason for this is that cemeteries weren't included in the suburban planning for residential areas. Consequently, pressure on the old cemeteries to allow more burials has increased and led to grave digger extortion.
Some cemeteries have found themselves in another troubling situation as a result of flooding that has started eating away at cemeteries, particularly those bordering the capital, such as Mathbah and Al-Sunainah Cemeteries located west of Sana'a and Beit Al-Afif in Hadda district.
Al-Ashwal also notes that residents near Al-Saba'een and Al-Afif Cemeteries have built homes on top of graves and land owned by the cemetery, causing further gravesite shortage.
“We've reminded them that their forefathers are there, but we can hardly convince them to stop digging and building,” noted Al-Ashwal, who learned about this situation after an Endowment team went to inspect the cemeteries.
Another problem is that graves are dug up and used for other bodies. This occurs because either the graves' headstones have disappeared over time and due to inclement weather or because the cemeteries are full and gravediggers want to supplement their income, so they resort to digging up old graves.
Gravediggers like Al-Mashhad Cemetery's Ahmed Al-Mujahid confess to digging up graves, but clarify that it was only by accident and that they never put new bodies in full graves. “I don't deny that I've dug up two or three graves, but it was a mistake,” he says, “It happened because the grave markers were swept away by flood rains and wind.”
As for extorting the relatives of the dead, Al-Hushaihyah Cemetery gravedigger Ali Bin Ali Musa'id says he's never extorted from anybody, but he admits that he has raised the price of graves due to the recent product-wide price hikes.
“I've never extorted from anybody, but the authorities accuse us of this in order to show off their concern for the people, but they don't care,” Musa'id said, “I don't deny that I've raised grave prices. We only have our government salaries and nothing else, so the prices hikes are unreasonable. We can't help it – we must raise prices in order to live.”
Mohammed Al-Anisi, who lives near Majel Al-Demah Cemetery, says his mother's tomb was destroyed by rain floods because the cemetery has no way to drain the water. He adds, “I think fullness was the reason the gravedigger dug up my mother's grave to bury another body in it, but they're supposed to be able to differentiate between free spaces and those with bodies.”
Some Sana'a zones have insufficient sanitation services, so residents extend sewage pipes from their homes into nearby graveyards. This has occurred at both Majel Al-Demah and Khozaimah Cemeteries and has corroded the site.
However, Al-Ashwal says his office has a plan to resolve such problems. The first part of the solution is to maintain the city's current cemeteries and expand them to neighboring plots of land. The second part involves coordinate with the Ministry of Public Works and the Capital Secretariat of Sana'a in order to ensure that all new zone building plans include a place for a cemetery. He also recommends constructing larger cemeteries on the outskirts of Sana'a.
Rain floods, sanitation problems and extortion don't just disturb the final resting places of the dead, they also cause those Yemenis that are left behind to worry about how their own graves will be cared for once they reach their eternal home.
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