Arafat Dead ?? Conflicting Reports .... [Archive] - Big Big Forums

Jolie Rouge

11-09-2004, 12:52 PM

Arafat Dead, Say Palestinian Sources Amid Confusion
33 minutes ago
By Wafa Amr

PARIS (Reuters) - The fate of Yasser Arafat was mired in confusion on Tuesday as Palestinian officials insisted in public he was clinging to life even as aides said privately the veteran leader had died at a Paris hospital.

Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, in a strenuous denial, said the Palestinian president, 75, was "very much alive," but at least five senior sources said he had succumbed to the mystery illness that led to his being flown to Paris on Oct. 29.

A top aide said Arafat, who lapsed into a coma last week, had suffered a brain hemorrhage. Palestinian sources said leaders were waiting for a senior Muslim cleric to arrive on Wednesday to give the go-ahead for disconnecting life-support machines.

"He is dead," one Palestinian source said. "He died after bleeding in the brain began last night. His bodyguards started hugging and kissing and telling each other to be strong."

Shaath described Arafat as "very ill," but said his brain, heart and lungs still functioned. A spokesman for French medical services said earlier: "Mr. Arafat is not dead."

The flurry of conflicting reports surfaced during a visit to Paris by a delegation of three senior Palestinian officials, all seen as potential successors to Arafat, to check on the Palestinian leader despite his wife's angry objections.

Arafat has been in a coma brought on by a still-undisclosed illness, with his dream of a Palestinian state unrealized, a possible succession battle brewing and the threat of chaos in Palestinian territories looming.

He has been widely admired by Palestinians as the father of their struggle for statehood but was reviled by many Israelis as the face of terror.

Both sides have wondered whether his death might serve as the catalyst for first real peace effort in years or plunge the region into deeper crisis.

But even before the official announcement of Arafat's death, a battle was taking shape between Israel and the Palestinians over where he would be buried.

Arafat's aides said they hoped to bury him at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah. But an Israeli political source said Israel, which occupies much of the West Bank, would only allow him to be laid to rest in the Gaza Strip

French doctors kept a tight lid on details of Arafat's condition at the behest of his wife, Suha, who engaged in a war of words with senior Palestinians officials over her virtual monopoly on information from his hospital bedside.

But on Tuesday, as the officials arrived in Paris to check on Arafat, doctors said he had slipped deeper into a coma.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...t_arafat_dc_143

Jolie Rouge

11-09-2004, 03:28 PM

Posted 11/9/2004 5:11 AM Updated 11/9/2004 5:16 PM

ARAFAT'S STATUS

HEALTH STATUS: Yasser Arafat's condition worsened overnight; an aide said he is suffering from bleeding in the brain.

WHAT'S HAPPENING: Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia saw Arafat in a hospital outside Paris and planned to return to the West Bank for an overnight meeting.

WHAT HIS WIFE SAYS: "I tell you they are trying to bury Abu Ammar alive," Suha Arafat tells Al-Jazeera television, referring to her 75-year-old husband by his nom de guerre.

'Matter of hours' until Arafat dies, top advisor says
PARIS (AP) — Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is near death, an adviser said Tuesday.

http://images.usatoday.com/news/_photos/2004/11/09/arafat-doc2.jpg
An announcement from French Medical Gen. Christian Estripeau Tuesday was the first time doctors acknowledged Araft was in a coma.
By Alastair Grant, AP

"It's only a matter of hours," Edward Abington, formerly the U.S. consul-general in Jerusalem, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Ramallah, where Arafat make his headquarters on the West Bank.

Demonstrating just how serious the situation is, top Islamic cleric Taissir Dayut Tamimi said he was rushing from the West Bank to Arafat's bedside at the request of Palestinian officials. Tamimi, the head of the Islamic court in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, said he was going to Paris "to be near President Arafat at this crucial time."

Abington said Arafat was in a deep coma and is near death. He said his information came from the Palestinian delegation in Paris. Only Ahmed Qureia, the prime minister, was permitted to see him by French doctors at the hospital because of his grave condition, Abington said.

Earlier, the 75-year-old leader was described in critical condition, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said after top Palestinian officials went to the hospital outside Paris where Arafat has been treated since Oct. 29. (Video: Arafat slips into deeper coma)

Shaath told a news conference the Palestinian leadership wanted to end rumors about Arafat's health. Media reports have speculated that he had either died or was brain dead.

"His brain, his heart and his lungs are still functioning and he is alive," Shaath said, giving the first detailed account of Arafat's treatment since he was hospitalized in France.

Arafat was on a respirator and was being fed intravenously, he said, emphasizing that intervening to end his life has never been considered.

"These instruments are there, of course. He's also attached to monitoring equipment," Shaath said. "So he has lots of equipment there, but as I said, nobody has ever thought of shutting them off. "He will live or die depending on his body's ability to resist and ... the will of God," he said.

Shaath also said there were no immediate plans to send Arafat home. "There is no talk of his return until he is cured," Shaath said. "The treatment he is getting here is excellent and so there is no talk of any premature return."

Shaath said officials do not have "a full understanding of why his state has deteriorated, which means we don't have a full diagnosis." He said Arafat's nearly three-year confinement at his headquarters in the West Bank contributed to his deterioration.

Palestinian leaders, meanwhile, made preparations for Arafat's eventual death, deciding that he will be buried at the West Bank headquarters, Deputy Parliament Speaker Hassan Khreishe told The Associated Press. Israel did not immediately rule out the idea. "We formed a committee to handle Arafat's burial in the event of his death, and the burial will be in the Muqata," Khreishe said, referring to the Ramallah headquarters by its Arabic name.

The sandbagged compound, a target of frequent Israeli raids, is to be turned into a shrine, and a mosque will be built there, Palestinian officials said.

Israel has ruled out a burial in Jerusalem or the city's West Bank suburb of Abu Dis. Asked about the Palestinians' decision, Asaf Shariv, a top aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said: "The prime minister said, 'Not in Jerusalem and not in Abu Dis.' We haven't discussed Ramallah yet. We will discuss it and decide."

A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision was made by Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and the No. 2 in the PLO, Mahmoud Abbas, the current caretaker leaders.

The official said the Ramallah burial would be considered temporary, until Arafat could be reburied in Jerusalem.

Shaath's remarks underlined that the Palestinian leadership was now in control of information about Arafat's condition after days of confusing and often conflicting reports. Palestinian officials had been denied access to the Palestinian leader by Arafat's wife, who used France's strict privacy laws that give authority to the family.

"What I would say is that on the political level, our government is functioning," Shaath said. "The Cabinet is working ... and God forbid, when the time comes, if President Arafat passes away, the speaker of the house will become interim president."

A top Palestinian official, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, said Arafat had suffered a brain hemorrhage Monday night at the Percy Military Training Hospital outside Paris.

A senior Palestinian official said earlier that Arafat has only hours to live. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was in Ramallah and had been briefed by Palestinian officials in Paris.

Edward Abington, the former U.S. consul-general in Jerusalem, also said Arafat was near death. "It's only a matter of hours," Abington told the AP in a telephone interview from Ramallah.

Abdel Rahim said Palestinian leaders would meet through the night at Arafat's headquarters "to follow everything and to agree on the details of the required arrangements."

"If the fate of God comes, all the arrangements will be made here in the Muqata, which is considered a symbol of Palestinian steadfastness," he said.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told the AP that Qureia saw Arafat during a visit of more than two hours at the hospital.

Gen. Christian Estripeau, spokesman for the hospital, said Arafat has been in a coma for the past week. It was the first time the French medical team treating Arafat publicly acknowledged that he was in a coma.

"President Yasser Arafat's health worsened in the night," Estripeau said. "His coma, which led to his admission to the intensive care unit, became deeper this morning." Arafat was put in intensive care on Nov. 3, five days after he was flown to France.

Estripeau said doctors were withholding a prognosis but that his deterioration marked "a significant stage."

A coma is a profound state of unconsciousness. Patients are alive but unable to move or respond to their environment. There are several levels of coma and patients may, or may not, progress through them. The responsiveness of the brain lessens as the coma deepens and when it becomes more profound, normal body reflexes are lost and patients no longer respond, even to pain.

The chances of recovery depend on the severity of the underlying cause. It is unclear whether a deeper coma alone necessarily means a slimmer chance of recovery because some people in deep coma recover well while others in a so-called milder coma sometimes fail to improve.

After going to Arafat's bedside, Qureia and other senior officials met with President Jacques Chirac, who first decided to accept Arafat in France for treatment. He was flown to Paris on Oct. 29.

Abdel Rahim said Arafat's top lieutenants would return to the West Bank after the meeting with Chirac.

During Arafat's illness, Qureia has assumed some emergency financial and administrative powers. Abbas has chaired a series of meetings of the PLO executive committee. But neither politician has much grass-roots support among Palestinians or important militant groups.

The news of Arafat's deteriorating condition came amid a dispute between Suha Arafat and Palestinian officials, whom she accused of trying to oust the leader after four decades in power.

In an angry outburst Monday, she had accused the leaders of coming to Paris to "bury" him "alive." Shaath said, however, that the dispute with Arafat's wife was over.

Some Palestinians have complained she has gained too much power, controlling information about Arafat's condition and taking charge of who sees him in the hospital.

Suha Arafat, the mother of Arafat's daughter, seems to have aligned herself with hard-liners who apparently seek to lead in a post-Arafat era, though some Palestinian officials said her motives are more financial. According to a senior official in Arafat's office, she has received monthly payments of $100,000 from Palestinian coffers and is widely believed to control vast funds collected by the PLO.

French prosecutors have launched a money-laundering investigation into transfers of $11.4 million into her accounts. She has refused to talk to reporters about Palestinian finances.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-11-09-arafat-worsens_x.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno