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Palestinian representative to the United Nations and nephew of Yasser Arafat, Nasser Al-Kidwa, right, hands the late-Palestinian leader's medical records to caretaker President of the Palestinian Authority Rauhi Fattouh at Arafat's former headquarters in Ramallah. Al-Kidwa handed over the medical records Saturday to Palestinian Authority officials, but did not reveal any new information on what led to his demise. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners December 11, 2004 |
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Yasser Arafat's nephew said Saturday his uncle may have died an "unnatural" death, a statement certain to fuel speculation among Palestinians that their late-leader was poisoned.
No diagnosis or reason has been given for Arafat's death on Nov. 11 at a French hospital, making the Arab world fertile ground for rumors that Israel poisoned Arafat, despite a lack of evidence and Israel's vehement denials.
The comments by Nasser al-Kidwa, Arafat's nephew and the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, could cause tension between Israel and the Palestinians at a time when it appears relations are improving.
Ongoing rumors that Arafat was poisoned could also make it more difficult for a new Palestinian leadership to take control after presidential elections on Jan. 9.
After handing interim Palestinian President Rauhi Fattouh the 558-page medical dossier, Al-Kidwa said French doctors could not rule out poisoning, but had not found traces in Arafat's body of "any poison known to them."
"Examinations of X-rays and all imaginable tests ... are still with the same results, the inability of reaching a clear diagnosis," Al-Kidwa said in English at a news conference in Ramallah on Saturday.
"That is precisely the reason why suspicions are there, because without a reason you cannot escape the other possibility ... that there is unnatural cause for the death," he added.
French officials have said that judicial authorities would have opened an investigation had they suspected wrongdoing.
Arafat, suffering from a mysterious illness, was urgently airlifted to the Percy Military Training Hospital, in the southwestern Paris suburb of Clamart, on Oct. 29. His condition rapidly deteriorated and he fell into a coma.
A month after Arafat's death at the age of 75, speculation about what killed him -- from cirrhosis of the liver to AIDS or poisoning -- is still swirling. All of the unconfirmed reports are consistent with the little that is publicly known about the medical condition that landed him at the French hospital.
Hani Masri, a commentator for the Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam, said many Palestinians already believe their leader was poisoned, and Israel made clear on numerous occasions it wanted to rid the region of Arafat.
"If there was proof he was poisoned it would severely complicate matters. The new leadership would not be able to renew peace negotiations with a country that killed its president," Masri said.
Al-Kidwa and other Palestinian officials have said Israel contributed to Arafat's death by confining him to his battered West Bank compound for the last three years of his life.
Al-Kidwa received Arafat's dossier from French medical officials last month, but no details have been released. A committee will look over the file to try to determine the cause of death.
Palestinian Health Minister Jawad Tibi said Saturday the committee would include Palestinian and Arab doctors who treated Arafat before he was taken to France.
Al-Kidwa said Palestinian officials would pursue their investigation until they reached a clear conclusion, and vowed to make the diagnosis public. "This file should remain open until the Palestinian people find out the truth," he said.
Kadoumi chimes in on poisoning charge
Farouk Kadoumi, the hard line Tunis-based Fatah leader and the foreign minister of the PLO claims that Israel and the United States conspired to eliminate Arafat.
Speaking to the Arabic language daily Al-Bian, Kadoumi said that the PLO has set up an investigative committee to examine the evidence pointing to the conspiracy", admitting "that so far we have not succeeded in discovering how this was done, as no traces of any known toxin have been found."
He also reported that Arafat's long time confidant and financial manager Mohammed Rashid has transferred large sums of money from Arafat's personal portfolios to the PA. "So far Salam Fayed, the PA Finance Minister, has received $600 million, and Rashid has assured us that more will be forthcoming."
Arafat reportedly had a personal fortune worth between one and three billion dollars, making him one of the richest men in the world.
The AP contributed to this report.
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