In Ramallah grief and confusion mark Arafat's last journey
Ramallah (AsiaNews/Agencies) With men pushing and shoving, many trying to scale walls, guns shooting in the air, thousands shouting Arafat's name trying to touch the flag-draped casket, tensions were running high in the Muqata. The burial ceremony and police cordon were impossible to implement according to schedule. In the mist of this tumult, Yasser Arafat's body was finally lowered into its resting place under the shade of four fir trees in the compound's main square. Arafat lived there, a virtual prisoner, since December 2001. He now lies there "temporarily" for Palestinians hope one day to fulfill his wish of being buried in the esplanade of the mosques.
Mourners saluted the coffin when it arrived by helicopter from Cairo by shooting in the air. Thousands of Palestinians surrounded the aircraft so that unloading had to wait. After 25 minutes the casket draped in the Palestinian flag was placed on a police jeep which edged its way through the crowd as officials pleaded with people to move back and allow them to carry it to the compound's main building.
Before its arrival, mourners had scaled the walls and broken through the gates of Mr Arafat's battered headquarters.
Men had worked through the night to prepare the grave, under the fir trees, next to the buildings wrecked by the Israeli military.
The burial was preceded by a prayer led by Sheikh Tamini, head of the Islamic Court in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The new Palestinian leadership was present: new PLO chairman Abu Mazen, Prime Minister Abu Ala and interim PNA President Rawhi Fattuh.
Mr Arafat was buried using soil brought from the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Islam's third holies place after Mecca and Medina, where Arafat wanted to be buried, a move flatly rejected by Israel.
Palestinians from Gaza Strip were not allowed to travel to Ramallah. Instead, a symbolic funeral service was held in Gaza City. Similar ceremonies were held in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria attended by thousands of mourners.
These afternoon, thousands of Palestinians started filing pass Arafat's marble grave to pay their respect.
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12/11/2004
