Yasser Arafat Laid to Rest in Ramallah

The body of Yasser Arafat was buried in the grounds of his West Bank headquarters Friday amid scenes of chaos as thousands of Palestinians tried to catch a last glimpse of their iconic leader.

His coffin was flown back to the Muqata headquarters, where he had spent most of the last three years of his life under virtual Israeli house arrest, after a military funeral in the Egyptian capital Cairo. But the sheer size of the crowds who had gathered on the tarmac meant that officials were unable to unload his casket for nearly 20 minutes.

When he was eventually brought out of the aircraft, hordes pushed their way past the masses of security who unleashed volleys of gunfire in a vain bid to maintain control. Deafening chants of "With our soul, with our blood, we will support you, Abu Ammar (Arafat)" echoed around the compound which was once home to an Israeli military base.

Wrapped in the Palestinian flag, his body was first loaded onto the roof of a four-wheel drive vehicle before being carried inside the building which had served as his offices in the last years of his life. There had been fears that militants from the Al-Aqsa Brigades would commandeer the body and march to Jerusalem and a potentially catastrophic face-off with Israeli forces.

Arafat had always wanted to be buried in Jerusalem, home to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound which is the third holiest site in Islam, but Israeli authorities categorically ruled out an Arafat burial in the holy city.

However, despite a moment of increased tension when the crowd seemed to take control of the direction Arafat's coffin was heading, there were no signs of the threat of anarchy turning to the reality. Arafat's body was then buried in a corner of one of the Muqata's courtyards before the crowd began a prayer joined by Palestinian leaders including newly appointed Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman Mahmud Abbas and prime minister Ahmed Qureia.

Tayssir el-Tamimi, head of religious courts in the Palestinian territories, who visited Arafat at his hospital bedside in France before his death, poured soil from Jerusalem atop the coffin.

Three people were shot and injured Friday by Palestinian security forces in the chaos, an AFP correspondent reported. The three injured, including one member of the security forces, were taken away by ambulance. At one stage, the head of Arafat's presidency office, Tayeb Abdelrahim, fainted in the emotional crush and could be seen being treated by medics.

The crowd numbers had been meant to be limited but at least 10,000 had managed to make their way inside the walls of the sprawling compound by the time the helicopter landed at around 2:17 p.m. (13:17 CET).

A crowd well in excess of 100,000 had also gathered outside of Ramallah, many of whom carried portraits of the only man they had known as their leader. Although Israel has hermetically sealed off the West Bank, Palestinians from across the territories made their way to Ramallah to pay homage to the man who dominated Palestinian political life for the last four decades.

Security forces blocked all the main arteries into the city with makeshift roadblocks of wooden crates, oil drums and heaps of rubble, all of which were closely guarded by policemen in black berets.

Fearing that many would be injured in the crush or dehydrated in the blazing heat, the Palestinian Red Crescent deployed at least 100 emergency personnel around the site, backed up by 15 ambulances.

The Palestinian president died at 75 in a French hospital on Thursday from an undetermined disease. Late Thursday, his widow Suha flew with the coffin to Cairo -- where official biographers say Arafat was born, although he himself often maintained he was born in Jerusalem. The arrival of his coffin was met with full military honors

As condolences for Arafat continue to pour in from across the globe, guests from some 50 countries at the 25-minute ceremony in the Egyptian capital Friday included international presidents, foreign ministers and royalty. The funeral ceremony was followed by a military parade, with Arafat's body borne on a horse-drawn carriage.

Western nations send foreign ministers

While the event was closed to the public, among those at the mosque near Cairo's military airport were Presidents Hosni Mubarak of Egypt (photo), Emile Lahoud of Lebanon and King Abdullah of Jordan.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak "mourns Arafat and expresses confidence in the ability of the Palestinian people to unite and achieve their objectives." wrote Egpytian daily Al-Ahram Friday. It also quoted Mubarak as saying "History will bear witness to his courageous stances, a fighter against occupation striving for peace."

Although Arab and African countries sent their heads of state, Germany, like most of the western nations, elected to send its foreign minister. After delays at Cairo airport meant he missed most of the ceremony, Joschka Fischer belatedly joined Britain's Jack Straw, France's Michel Barnier and the EU's High Representative Javier Solana, while the US sent Assistant Secretary of State William Burns rather than Colin Powell, in a snub that attests to its boycott of Arafat as an "obstacle to peace."

No Israeli officials attended. "I do not think we should send a representative to the funeral of somebody who killed thousands of our people," said Justice Minister Yosef Lapid.