DUBAI, May 23: Saudi Arabia is cracking down on thousands of foreign women for overstaying in the kingdom after the end of the annual muslim haj pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina last month, a Saudi newspaper said today.

Arab News said a special task force had approved measures to force such people to leave, including cutting water and electricity to buildings housing them since a deadline for their departure took effect yesterday.

Deportation centre sources said about 13,000 overstayers, from the period between the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in February and the end of the Haj in late April, were being deported every day through Jeddah, a Red Sea city close to the holy Muslim sites.

Thousands of pilgrims, mainly from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Egypt, are known to take advantage of their presence in Saudi Arabia and stay beyond their Haj visa to seek work in violation of the kingdom's strict immigration laws.

Saudi authorities say such violators pose a security threat and have organised campaigns to arrest and deport them.

This year's Haj was overshadowed by the massive fire which claimed hundreds of lives. Most of the victims belonged to the Indian subcontinent.

fled¬Ut›¸@¼Tt›e after 32 years in power. Kabila immediately baptised the mineral-rich country the Democratic Republic of Congo, its name at independence from Belgium in 1960.As soon as he took charge of Africa's third biggest country, Kabila was under intense domestic pressure and some western encouragement to appoint Tshisekedi to a key post such as the prime ministership.

He brushed aside those calls despite warnings that Tshisekedi remains a hugely popular political figure in the capital of five million.

Kakudji, deputy secretary-general of the Alliance, replied firmly when pressed by reporters about Tshiseke di's exclusion.

``You must not have a fixed idea. This country has many sons who are sufficiently capable of assuming political responsibilities.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.