World leaders mourn Arafat at funeral

Associated Press ^ | Nov 12, 6:05 AM EST | DONNA ABU-NASR

[Former Military Chick]

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Yasser Arafat's funeral service began with humble prayers Friday and ended with a military procession, his wooden coffin borne on a horse-drawn gun carriage and draped in the Palestinian flag, followed by presidents and kings.

His veiled widow, Suha, and their rarely seen 9-year-old daughter, Zahwa, wept as a band dressed in scarlet played the Palestinian and Egyptian national anthems at a military airfield in northern Cairo.

The casket was then loaded aboard the Egyptian air force plane, which took off on the journey to carry Arafat's body to the West Bank.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, as well as Farouk Kaddoumi, the newly chosen head of the Fatah organization, and Mahmoud Abbas, head of the PLO executive committee, were among those in the front row of about 60 world leaders and other dignitaries who earlier marched behind the casket down Salah Salem Street, which was closed to the public.

Also in the front row was Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, among the Arab leaders with whom Arafat had clashed in the past. The United States, which had labeled Arafat an obstacle to peace, sent Assistant Secretary of State William Burns.

The band played a funeral dirge and a high-stepping honor guard carried wreaths at the head of the procession.

The service, amid high security at the Galaa Club, a military compound in northern Cairo, was shown live on Egyptian television, although all other media was barred from the mosque and tent where most dignitaries sat through the prayers.

"He has served his people all his life, until he faced his God, with courage and honesty. Let us pray for his soul," the Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar Mohammed Sayed Tantawi said.

Throughout the ceremony, Egyptian television played Quranic recitations, including a verse: "After hardship, ease."

Arafat's coffin was to be flown to el-Arish, in Egypt's northeastern Sinai Peninsula, said Palestinian coordinator Hani Jebour. Two Jordanian helicopters would then ferry the coffin and its accompanying delegation to Arafat's Ramallah compound, where he was kept a virtual prisoner in his final years, for burial before sunset.

Arafat, who died Thursday in Paris, was mourned by Palestinians at home and in refugee camps across the region who had hoped he would one day lead them back to Jerusalem, and by Arabs who saw him as an inspiring leader. Arab and Israeli authorities took steps to prevent any emotional outpouring from evolving into riots, and many countries declared official mourning periods.

Harried preparations for Arafat's grave were made in Ramallah. Early Friday, workers raked sand to level the ground as they laid gray marble slabs around the base of the open, stone-lined tomb. The Palestinians consider it a temporary grave site - until the day they hope they can honor his request to be buried in Jerusalem.

Flags flew at half-staff in the compound, where Palestinian policemen rehearsed rifle drills for the ceremony. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia briefly stopped by to inspect progress on the tomb, while outside a few young men sat, heads clasped in their hands, next to posters of Arafat and piles of wilting flowers.

Security was a concern throughout Cairo. The Arab public - among whom Arafat was popular - was told to stay away from the area.

The plane carrying Arafat's coffin arrived from France late Thursday. Suzanne Mubarak, the wife of the Egyptian president, greeted Suha Arafat with a hug.

Early Friday, black-uniformed Egyptian police lined the street near the Galaa Club, where the funeral began at 10 a.m. (3 a.m. EST), an hour earlier than officials had said it would. A soldier watched over the club from high in a minaret of the mosque.

After a traditional funeral prayer lasting only a few minutes, eight dark-suited pallbearers carried the casket from the mosque and handed it to an Egyptian honor guard. They placed it in a silver hearse and drove away from the mosque; the carriage stood motionless flanked by Egyptian honor guards.

Egyptian television showed pictures of Mubarak arriving at the colorful, red-carpeted tent on the grounds of the military club. There, Farouk Kaddoumi, newly chosen leader of the Fatah organization, and Abbas could be seen standing with Arafat's nephew, Palestinian envoy to the United Nations Nasser al-Kidwa, to receive condolences.

Among the dignitaries were King Abdullah II of Jordan, President Bashar Assad of Syria, Sultan Hasanal Bolkiah of Brunei, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, European Union Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana and Pope Shenouda III, head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church.

"Yasser Arafat was more important for Palestinian identity than their flag and their national anthem," Terje Roed-Larsen, U.N. envoy for the Middle East and a key player in the talks that led to the 1993 Oslo peace accord, told The Associated Press during the funeral.

He said he hoped the new Palestinian leadership would return to peace negotiations with Israel.

In a column published in Friday's New York Times, King Abdullah II of Jordan urged the United States to "refocus" on the peace process.

"In Israel, the government can recommit to the road map and move swiftly to withdraw from Gaza and take other confidence-building measures that will refute the charge that its recent policies are intended to sideline the peace process and further divide people," he wrote. "Both sides can now make the compromises that a comprehensive, lasting and just peace requires."

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[bitt]

watching this coverage of the coffin being swamped by crazy mobs and guns being fired, I wonder where our under-secretary is (the official mourner from the US)? Guess he ducked into a bar for a drink...:)

[A Real Dan Fan... NOT]

This would be a fine time for a flight of Apaches to show up and LAY WASTE!

That would cull out the terrorists in a hurry.

[w1andsodidwe]

The cartoon on your profile page says it all.

[TrebleRebel]

I was thinking the same thing...what did Burns do that caused such a severe reprimand as representing the US at a terrorist funeral?

[anonymous_user]

Be sure and take the names of all the world leaders at the funeral: They are our enemies.

"You're either with us or with the terrorists" in case there's any question where France stands.

[azhenfud]

Every "world leader" attending should be refused re-entry into their peace-loving countries.

[OXENinFLA]

Fri Nov 12, 6:20 AM ET

A video grab from Egypt TV shows Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s coffin, draped in a Palestinian flag, being carried by horse-drawn gun carriage to an Egyptian air base, November 12, 2004, in a funeral ceremony attended by world leaders. Arafat, a former guerrilla who won a Nobel Peace Prize, will be buried later in the smashed West Bank compound where he spent his final years besieged by Israeli troops without realising his dream of a Palestinian state. NO ARCHIVE NO RESALES EGYPT OUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY REUTERS/EGYPT TV via REUTERS TV

[Valin]

Harried preparations for Arafat's grave were made in Ramallah

Arafat family plot in Gaza an unkempt dump

Sun Nov 7, 6:51 PM ET Mideast - AFP



KHAN YUNIS, Gaza Strip (AFP) - Unkempt, ankle deep in rubbish and the air thick with flies from the stinking market next door, the Arafat family plot could not be a more inauspicious burial place for the icon of Palestinian nationhood.

As Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) fights for life in a Paris hospital, Israel has made clear that it will not accede to the veteran Palestinian leader's wishes to be buried in Jerusalem and instead wants his final resting place to be in Gaza where his father and sister are already entombed.


Less than 100 square metres (yards) with two dozen tombs already in pride of place, a minimum of mourners would be able to crowd the site, stumbling over the the roughshod ground to pay their last respects.


Hidden behind a cement wall and accessible through a solitary white, metal door encrusted with mud, nothing could be less imposing or more humiliating for a man who is now unlikely to achieve his dream of a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem.


Bin liners, a child's T-shirt and a traditional red keffiyeh (headdress of the type favoured by Arafat) are ground into the dust. Empty crisp bags, milk cartons, plastic bottles and broken glass are strewn across the burnt grass.


Overgrown scarlet and white bougainvillia do nothing to sweeten the nauseating stench of rotting fruit and meat, laced with dung from half-dead donkeys tied up in the adjacent market.


Laundry hanging from a run-down high-rise flat flaps over the grave of Arafat's sister, Yussra al-Qidwa, who was laid to rest in August last year, alongside their father.


But locals used to the filth and stench of the depressed town barely even notice, shrugging their shoulders when asked if they thought it a befitting final resting place for the hero of their struggle for freedom.


"It would be good if he was buried here because we love him a lot and he will be near his family," said unemployed Ahmed Zaourb, 17.


Outside in the market, Osama Ahmed, a banana seller in his mid-40s also hopes to see a Khan Yunis burial for Arafat, but recognises few talk about it on the streets.


Only, Saleh Zaourb, a 48-year-old butcher, turns up his nose at what he sees.


"I don't want the president to be buried here. Other places would be more fitting. Jerusalem is the best place, otherwise Gaza City," he said.


Israel's Justice Minister Tommy Lapid has said that the Jewish state would never countenance Arafat's burial in Jerusalem, the holy city known to Arabs as Al Quds.


"Jerusalem is the city where Jewish kings are buried and not Arab terrorists," said Lapid.

[SkyPilot]

"World Leaders."

They are nothing of the sort. They honor a man who ordered the murder of children.

[Lorraine]

I am very upset over Arafats death.No more stinky to kick around anymore.

[Centurion2000]

The United States, which had labeled Arafat an obstacle to peace, sent Assistant Secretary of State William Burns.

TOTALLY INCORRECT. This homsexual, islamic scumbag killed hundreds of americans and ordered the murder of diplomats.

[prairiebreeze]

his wooden coffin borne on a horse-drawn gun carriage and draped in the Palestinian flag,

This bit is interesting. I wonder if this is typical burial tradition for ME "leaders" (using that word so loosely it's about to fall off the page)...or if they've borrowed that bit of ceremony from the west.

Prairie

[sheik yerbouty]

Some of them showed up there to get one last "quick, cold one".

[Houmatt]

Wasn't he by most standards a terrorist?

No. He was a terrorist by every standard.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Is he still dead? :)

[Cvengr]

Suha reveals her inner self...