World Leaders Mourn Arafat at Funeral

CAIRO, Egypt – 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.

In the West Bank, thousands of Palestinian mourners swarmed into Arafat’s walled compound in Ramallah, where he was to be buried before sunset. The action raised questions about whether the helicopter carrying his body would be able to land there.

For several hours, hundreds of Palestinian police had tried to keep the growing crowd back, but at one point, mourners managed to break through gates and climb over walls. A top Arafat aide, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, appealed to the crowd to move back from the gates.

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 left Cairo for el-Arish, in Egypt’s northeastern Sinai Peninsula, where two Jordanian helicopters were waiting to carry it and an accompanying delegation to Ramallah. Arafat was a virtual prisoner in the compound in his final years.

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.

Before the crowds burst into the Ramallah compound, workers made final preparations for Arafat’s grave. Sand was raked to level the ground as gray marble slabs were laid 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.

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

Across town, scores of people carrying photographs of Arafat and the Egyptian and Palestinian flags, demonstrated at the ancient Al-Azhar Mosque, chanting: “Oh, Arafat, rest in peace. Await us at heaven’s door” and “Yasser, Yasser … we are with you in the line of fire.”

Rasha Mahmoud was upset she could not bid a final farewell to Arafat.

“It is pathetic that the people were not allowed to take part in the funeral,” said the 20-year-old student. “He was a great leader who fought for the nation. The least he deserved was for us to take part in the funeral prayers.”

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.”