Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is still alive and efforts are being made by his French doctors to stop the haemorrhaging of his brain, Negotiations Minister Saeb Erakat told reporters on Tuesday.
“All efforts are being made by our friends the French doctors to relieve this haemorrhaging,” Erakat said at the press conference, translating into English an announcement by the head of Arafat’s office, Tayeb Abdelrahim.
“We are in constant contact with our brothers at the Percy hospital in Paris,” he added. “Our prayers and thoughts at this critical, difficult moment are with President Arafat.”
Arafat will be buried at his Muqataa leadership compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah if he should die, Abdelrahim also said on Tuesday.
Confusion
A Palestinian Cabinet minister had earlier said that Arafat had passed away at the Percy military hospital on the outskirts of Paris.
Confusion surrounded Arafat’s health as reports swirled of his death, only to be swiftly denied.
The hospital at Clamart, outside Paris, announced a sudden deterioration in his health, saying he had slipped into a deeper coma, just before a delegation of senior Palestinian figures spent two-and-a half-hours visiting him.
In Paris, a spokesperson for the army medical service treating Arafat said that he was still alive at 3.30pm local time, and two members of his entourage, United Nations delegate Nasser el-Qidwa and the representative in France, Leila Shahid, also denied he was dead.
The confusion followed the visit by four top Palestinian figures — Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, acting Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) chief Mahmud Abbas, Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath and parliamentary Speaker Rawhi Fattuh — to the Percy military hospital in Clamart.
Qureia and Abbas both spent time at Arafat’s sickbed.
After the visit, Abbas said: “His situation is serious. Sadly, it is very serious. We saw all the doctors.”
A short while later, the Palestinian Cabinet minister in Ramallah said that “for sure he is dead”, adding: “It’s a question of how and when to announce it. It [an announcement] will be most likely made tonight.”
A senior Palestinian official also said from France that Arafat had passed away, saying the official announcement was just hours away.
However, Shaath told CNN that Arafat was still alive.
“His coma has deepened but he is fully alive,” Shaath said. “His brain, heart and lungs, his vital organs are still functioning.”
And an official at the army medical service said “the statement made public by General Christian Estripeau is still valid at 3.30pm”.
The Palestinian delegation later left the hospital for a meeting with French President Jacques Chirac. Earlier, it saw Foreign Minister Michel Barnier for what was described as “political” talks.
The arrival of the four leaders in Paris came against the background of a bitter quarrel with Suha Arafat, who has used France’s strict privacy laws to control access to her husband and severely limit information about his health.
On Monday, Suha made an emotional outburst on Al-Jazeera television urging the delegation to stay away and accusing them of “coming to Paris to try and bury Abu Ammar [Arafat’s nom de guerre].”
Palestinian officials said they were astonished by Suha’s remarks, which drew widespread criticism in the West Bank and Gaza. Arafat’s wife is not a popular figure in the Palestinian territories, where she is accused of having led a privileged lifestyle in Paris instead of sharing her husband’s ordeal.
“Arafat is not owned by a small family. He is for all the Palestinian people and we pray to God that he comes back safe to achieve his dream of a Palestinian state,” said Abdelrahim.
“Nobody can prevent the leadership from inquiring about the health of the president,” he said. — AFP
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