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ndonesia's Religious Affairs Ministry has reported on its official website that, as of Tuesday, a total of 96 Indonesians had died during the annual haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

Most of the deceased pilgrims died from respiratory related diseases.

The ministry data reveals that five of the 96 pilgrims died in Jeddah, 22 in Madinah, 67 in Mecca, and two others died during their departure to Saudi Arabia.

Antara news agency identified the latest pilgrims to have died as Maryono bin Marto Kawito, Hernawati Mansyur, Nurdin Simanjuntak, Tuti Setiasih, Masniah Masdar, Karim Tato and Jawanar Kamil.

Maryono died of asthma while Hernawati died of heart failure. Nurdin, Tuti, Masniah, and Jawanar all suffered from cardiac arrest, while Karim died due to a broken bone after a stumble.

The ministry has estimated the total number of Indonesian pilgrims at around 209,000 as of Monday.

Meanwhile, a monitoring team from the House of Representatives Commission VIII on Religious Affairs said there were still many problems in the current management of the haj pilgrimage.

The commission chairman, Abdul Kadir Karding from the National Awakening Party (PKB), said after his meeting with Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali in Mecca that some of the main issues were insufficient medical supplies, the poor conditions of facilities in the pilgrims' dormitories, and the lack of reliable transportation from their dormitories to Masjidil Haram (the Great Mosque).

According to Abdul, the shuttle buses rented from local haj transportation services often ran late and sometimes deviated from their original routes, a situation that has forced a lot of pilgrims to wait for hours at their dormitories or at Masjidil Haram.

Abdul said the bus drivers, most of whom came from Syria and Egypt, often exploited the lack of monitoring from the ministry's Committee on Haj Pilgrimage Program (PPIH).

Abdul also said that there were still many complaints from pilgrims about the lack of toilet facilities in their respective dormitories. Some dormitories have only five toilets, despite housing up to 100 pilgrims.

"We demand the minister follow up these important issues as soon as possible," Abdul said.

The team also found that the supply of medicine was not sufficient, and it also found that in some areas, branded medication had been replaced with cheaper and inferior generic versions.

"This must be investigated thoroughly because such an occurrence can only be considered fraudulent or criminal practice," he said.

Abdul said the responsibility for the management of medical supplies rested fully in the hands of the Health Ministry.

"Generally speaking, I am satisfied with the conditions of the current haj pilgrimage, but I expect improvements *in the future*," he said.

Suryadharma said he promised to improve the management of the haj pilgrimage in response to Abdul's request.

Abdul's team was the second House monitoring team deployed to Saudi Arabia.

The previous monitoring team also found similar problems to the ones publicized by Abdul. The previous team found most of the dormitories were located far from the Ka'bah (central shrine).