Wild crowds, gunfire force hasty Arafat burial

RAMALLAH, West Bank: A chaotic crush of mourners filling the air with gunfire forced a hasty burial of Yasser Arafat yesterday in the finale to a tumultuous life as the trailblazer of Palestinian nationalism. Tens of thousands converged on Arafat’s West Bank compound, scaling walls and overwhelming security men to mob his arriving coffin. They clamoured for one last sight of Arafat, holding up portraits of him and imploring, “Don’t go, stay with us.” The anarchy scuttled plans to have his body lie in state or conduct an honour guard. In the end, only a small clutch of beleaguered senior officials and security officers in a tight circle saw his casket lowered into a black marble grave. They piled colourful wreaths and flowers on top. Security men tried to fire a farewell salute but the shots came out wildly as mourners behind them jostled in vain for a glimpse.

“He was buried ahead of time because of the emotion of the crowd. We had no choice,” a senior Palestinian official said. The “Muqata” became a symbol of resistance for Palestinians as Israel effectively marooned Arafat there for more than 2-1/2 years, accusing him of inciting violence in a four-year-old Palestinian uprising — which he denied. Scores of militants in Arafat’s Fatah nationalist movement sprayed the air with automatic weapons fire as the helicopter alighted and crowds swarmed around it. “We will sacrifice our blood and souls to redeem you, oh Abu Ammar (Arafat’s nom de guerre),” they chanted and “Yasser, Yasser,” clapping their hands rhythmically. Palestinian officials travelling with the coffin appeared at the helicopter door and pleaded for throngs to disperse. “I was in shock, I did not expect what happened.

I expected to see, you know, a procession of guards of honour, as the president would have loved to see, with music and so on,” Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told CNN. “It was a chaotic situation, but at the same time it reflected the attachment of his people towards him,” Erekat added. After a half hour of indecision, security men squeezed Arafat’s coffin out of the helicopter and ploughed into a jostling sea of people trying to touch the flag-draped casket. The coffin was then hoisted on to a jeep and security men clutched it frantically to prevent it slipping off into the mob. The flag was torn away in the confusion and someone threw a black-and-white checked keffiyah headdress, resembling the one Arafat always wore, over the casket as a symbolic substitute.

It was to have been taken into the Muqata’s main entry hall to lie in state but instead was diverted to the grave site cleared of rubble from past Israeli shellings of the compound. Nine people were wounded, one critically, by gunshots fired wildly into the air. Hundreds of mourners were treated by medics after fainting in the crush or falling off walls. Arafat, reviled by most Israelis as an “arch-terrorist,” died on Thursday at 75 after suffering a brain haemorrhage at the Paris hospital to which he was airlifted from the Muqata on October 29 after falling gravely ill. Some in the crowds flooding the Muqata waved palm fronds and others Palestinian flags and portraits of Arafat, for decades one of the world’s most recognisable leaders and the only one most Palestinians have known.

“Until now, I could not believe Abu Ammar had died. I cannot imagine Palestine without him. It’s going to be very hard,” said Deya Jamal, 19, a student. “You will stay in our hearts, leader of the revolution and symbol of the resistance,” said a caption on an Arafat poster. Gunmen firing volleys above the crowd vowed revenge on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who refused to deal with Arafat and is pursuing a unilateral plan that would strip Palestinians of West Bank land they want for a viable state. Many Palestinians who might have come from elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were stopped because Israeli troops tightened controls around Palestinian cities, citing a possible threat of militant attacks linked to the burial.

Arafat’s Jordanian physician says his mysterious death requires autopsy

AMMAN, Jordan: As Yasser Arafat was being buried at his West Bank compound yesterday, his Jordanian physician said the still-unclear reasons for the Palestinian leader’s death required that an autopsy be performed. Dr Ashraf al-Kurdi’s comments underscored frustration in many corners of the Arab world over the intense secrecy surrounding Arafat’s fatal illness and the continuing mystery of the cause of death. Some in the Arab world have turned increasingly to speculating about poisoning, but Israelis and Palestinian officials have sharply denied that theory. “These stories are simply ridiculous,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told The Associated Press yesterday. “We never denied Arafat access to medical help. We never prevented doctors from visiting him. We never prevented him from going to a hospital.” Three days earlier, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said after talks with Arafat’s French doctors that they had “ruled out completely poison.”

Arafat died Thursday in Paris, where he had flown October 29 for treatment after tests indicated he had a low count of blood platelets, components that help clotting. Neither doctors nor Palestinian leaders have said what caused Arafat’s death after days in a coma. “One of the causes of platelet deficiency is poison,” said al-Kurdi, who examined a gravely ill Arafat in his Ramallah compound two weeks ago, before he was taken to Paris. Although “not definitive, I believe the highest reason for Arafat’s mysterious death is poisoning,” al-Kurdi told The Associated Press. “Therefore, there should be an autopsy performed,” added the leading Jordanian neurologist, who had frequently examined Arafat over the past two decades. Gen Christian Estripeau, spokesman at the French hospital where Arafat was treated, refused to comment on the report. He also refused to comment on whether an autopsy had been performed. Palestinian officials were not immediately available to say whether an autopsy would be considered. While poisoning can lead to a low platelet count, so can a variety of other maladies, from major bone marrow malfunction and cancer to infection.

Doctors say a handful of ailments seems consistent with the little information that is known about Arafat’s condition before he died. Among them is disseminated intravascular coagulation, or DIC — where the body consumes platelets. In elderly people — Arafat was 75 — the underlying problem is usually a severe infection or cancer. Other possible conditions are chemical toxicity. Al-Kurdi said French and Arab doctors have “excluded the other reasons which caused Arafat’s platelet deficiency, like viral or bacterial infection, blood and other forms of cancer and lowered immunity.” He called the burial hasty and expressed concern about the lack of an autopsy as dictated by laws and in compliance with Islamic rules, especially when suspicious death occurs. He said it all raised the specter of poisoning and questions of whether Israel or others could be involved. “It looks as if somebody is trying to hide the truth,” he said. But Regev said stories about poisoning started with the extremist Palestinian group Hamas and had no factual basis. Israel’s Foreign Minister, Silvan Shalom, on Thursday dismissed allegations that Israel killed Arafat as “scandalous and false.”

No love lost at burial for Arafat’s missing queen

RAMALLAH, West Bank: It was hard to tell who was who in the melee as the body of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was brought home for burial. But one striking absence in Ramallah was the distinctive blonde head of his wife, Suha. Despised by many Palestinians for steering clear of the West Bank or Gaza Strip during a 4-year-old uprising, Suha stirred even greater anger for isolating their beloved leader during his dying days in a French hospital. “I’m sure she was fearing the reaction of the Palestinian people,” said 25-year-old Rania Zabaneh after Arafat was buried in scenes of chaotic fervour at his old West Bank headquarters. “Anything could have happened to her,” she said. Palestinians damn Suha, 41, as a self-styled “queen” who damaged the dignity of the man who symbolised their national cause and muddied his succession by keeping those needing to know in the dark about his condition.

She accused his aides, veteran comrades who had never been easy with Arafat’s marriage in 1992 to a woman half his age, of trying to “bury him alive.” Suha allowed only those she saw fit to visit him before he was declared dead on Thursday. “She betrayed the Palestinian people. I only respect her because of the president,” said Mohammed Mahmoud Qasi, 18, near the graveside. Many Palestinians were surprised when word trickled out of the Muslim Arafat’s marriage to Suha, a Christian from the well-known Tawil family in Ramallah. Officials said at the time she had converted to Islam. With her uncovered hair and pricey Western designer clothes, Suha raised eyebrows during her public outings in the generally conservative and Muslim Palestinian territories.

In February this year, French prosecutors opened an inquiry into transfers totalling 9 million euros ($11.5 million) into bank accounts held in France by Suha, based on information supplied by the government’s money-laundering watchdog. Suha denied living off lavish sums improperly diverted from official coffers while Palestinians sank deeper into economic misery amid the violence. Along with Zahwa, the daughter she bore Arafat in 1995, Suha left for Paris at the start of the Palestinian uprising in 2000 after their Gaza house was hit by an Israeli missile barrage on a nearby compound of Arafat’s security guard. The two were unhurt.

Palestinian officials were offended when Suha alighted in Ramallah briefly on October 29 to take over Arafat’s evacuation. They were even angrier when she limited access to Arafat in Paris and practically accused them of plotting to kill him. “If she comes to Ramallah, she will see how much the people hate her, but if she doesn’t come people will criticise her even more,” said one official. From a black car, Suha watched a funeral procession for Arafat in Cairo that was attended by kings, presidents and dignitaries from over 50 countries. She wept at the Egyptian airbase where Arafat’s body was loaded on a plane for the journey home. Then they parted ways.