Yasser Arafat to be Exhumed Tuesday, Reopening the Mystery of his Death

The Globe and Mail ^ | Saturday, Nov. 24 2012

[nickcarraway]

Yasser Arafat’s death always has been shrouded in mystery.

Now his remains and entire tomb are shrouded in tarps as the Palestinian Authority has given permission for his body to be exhumed Tuesday from its burial place below a memorial in the muqata, the Palestinian presidential headquarters. After a lengthy legal and diplomatic process, Mr. Arafat’s French widow, Suha Arafat, has won a court order, and received French support for an examination of her husband’s body to determine if the iconic figure had been poisoned, as long has been rumored.

The leader of the Fatah resistance movement, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and first president of the Palestinian Authority, died in Paris in 2004. He was 75 and had been moved to the French capital from this Palestinian city, suffering from some unknown illness.

The expansive white marble site, a popular spot for tourists and a required stop for foreign dignitaries, looks today more like a construction site , with gravel and dirt piled outside the walls as the plastic tarps flap in the chilly wind.

Port Said Road, which runs along the southern side of the compound and provides pedestrian access to the grave, has been closed to traffic and guards are suspicious of a journalist making notes and interviewing passersby.

[tet68]

We're here for Mr. Arafat!