Haaretz
Cheshvan 28, 5765
World leaders
marked the death Thursday of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat
with a mixture of praise for his dedication to the Palestinian cause and
regret for his failure to realize the dream of statehood for his people.
South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela on Thursday
hailed Arafat as "an icon in the proper sense of the word" and urged new
commitment to a Middle East settlement.
"Yasser Arafat was one of
the outstanding freedom fighters of this generation, one who gave his
entire life to the cause of the Palestinian people," said Mandela, who met
Arafat numerous times over the years.
"We honor his memory today.
We express our sincerest condolences to his wife, family and the
Palestinian people. It is with great sadness that one notes that his and
his people's dream of a Palestinian state had not yet been
realized."
Terje Roed-Larsen, the United Nation's longtime Middle
East envoy and a key mediator in past peace talks, said Arafat's last
years were marred by mistakes.
"One of the reasons his credibility
as a leader was undermined on the Palestinian side was an increasing
agreement among the leadership and the Palestinian people that Arafat had
led them in the wrong direction over the past four years," Roed-Larsen
told Norwegian state radio NRK.
"He was like a surrealistic
painting, full of contradictions, full of mystery, full of inconstancies.
He was complex, deep, superficial, rational, irrational, cold, warm. He
may be the most fascinating person I have ever met, and without comparison
the most fascinating leader I have ever met," Roed-Larsen said.
French President Jacques Chirac hailed Arafat on Thursday as a man
of courage and conviction who embodied the Palestinian struggle for a
state.
"It is with emotion that I have just learnt of the death of
President Yasser Arafat, the first elected president of the Palestinian
Authority," Chirac said in a written statement. "I offer my very sincere
condolences to his family and to people close to him."
Chirac, who
had visited Arafat days before his death,
called him a "man of courage
and conviction who, for 40 years, has incarnated the Palestinians' combat
for recognition of their national rights."
Tears and gunshots,
praise and condemnation marked the death of Yasser Arafat, whose fight for
the Palestinian cause made him a towering and controversial figure on the
world stage.
Arafat's death at a Paris hospital, long expected
after he flew to France for treatment of a mysterious illness late last
month and soon after fell into a coma, was announced about 6 A.M. in the
Middle East.
Powell urges calm
On word of the death of
Arafat, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell pledged on Thursday the
United States "will do all we can" to help Palestinians achieve peace and
urged calm to prevail in the region.
"Our concern remains for the
Palestinian people and the realization of the vision of an independent,
democratic, viable Palestinian state, at peace with its neighbors, as set
forward by President Bush," Powell said.
U.S. President George W.
Bush's offered his condolences to the Palestinian people on the death of
Arafat.
"The death of Yasser Arafat is a significant moment in
Palestinian history," Bush said in a statement issued by the White House.
"During the period of transition that is ahead, we urge all in the region
and throughout the world to join in helping make progress toward these
goals and toward the ultimate goal of peace."
The State Department
said Wednesday that Israel must implement Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
disengagement plan despite the death of Arafat.
United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan was "deeply moved" by the death of
Palestinian Arafat and urged renewed efforts by the Palestinians and the
Israelis to reach peace, a spokesman said late on Wednesday.
The
spokesman said Arafat would be remembered for leading the Palestinians in
a "giant step" toward peace in signing the Oslo accords in 1993 and, "It
is tragic that he did not live to see it fulfilled."
Annan
expressed his condolences to Arafat's family and to the Palestinian
people.
The European Union praised Arafat on Thursday for his
"single-minded commitment" to the Palestinian cause and pledged to work
with the new Palestinian leadership to find peace in the Middle
East.
"We will work with the Palestinian authorities and the
international community to contribute to realizing the aspirations of the
Palestinian people," said a statement on behalf of the EU from Dutch
Foreign Minister Ben Bot. The Netherlands holds the EU's rotating
presidency.
Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy
chief, said the "best tribute" to Arafat would be to renew efforts to
implement the 2003 "road map" peace plan which envisions an end to
violence and the creation of a Palestinian state.
British Prime
Minister Tony Blair, who is expected to press for a Middle East peace push
in his meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington on Friday,
said Arafat "led his people to an historic acceptance and the need for a
two-state solution."
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said,
"Arafat played such a dominant role on behalf of the Palestinians over so
many decades that it is hard to imagine the Middle East without him.
Straw will represent the British government at Arafat's funeral.
But Australian Prime Minister John Howard said that history would
judge Arafat harshly because of his failure to embrace a proposed peace
deal with Israel.
Earlier this week, Howard had ruled out attending
Arafat's funeral, saying an Australian government representative would go
instead.
Putin: Heavy loss
Russian President Vladimir
Putin praised Arafat on as "an influential political figure on an
international scale."
"It is a heavy loss for the Palestinian
leadership, and all Palestinians," Putin said in a statement released by
the Kremlin. He credited Arafat with "strengthening friendly relations
between Russia and Palestine."
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II
expressed condolences following the death if Arafat, who he said "had
waged a struggle for decades to uphold the national interests of the Arab
people of Palestine," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
The
Vatican praised Arafat as a leader who struggled to win independence for
his people and repeated its support of a sovereign Palestinian state
alongside Israel.
A Vatican statement called Arafat an "illustrious
deceased" and asked God to grant eternal rest to his soul and peace to the
Holy Land.
Chinese President Hu Jintau said Arafat's "death is not
only a great loss for the Palestinian people, but the Chinese people also
lost a great friend."
Former U.S. president Bill Clinton on
Thursday offered condolences to Palestinians but said their leader had
missed the opportunity to create lasting Middle East peace in
2000õ
Clinton will not attend either his memorial service or his
funeral, the former president's office said.
In his statement
Clinton said, "I regret that in 2000 he missed the opportunity to bring
that nation into being and pray for the day when the dreams of the
Palestinian people for a state and a better life will be realized in a
just and lasting peace."
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called
Arafat "the father of the modern Palestinian nationalist movement" and "a
powerful human symbol and forceful advocate."
Tears, gunshots in
Arab world
In the teeming refugee camps of Ein el-Hilweh and Mieh
Mieh near the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, burning tires spewed heavy
black smoke and guerrillas fired into the air, rites of mourning that
expressed frustration as well as sadness.
Houses on Ein el-Hilweh's
streets and alleys were bedecked with Arafat's
pictures, Palestinian
flags and black banners. Arafat has strong loyalties in the camp, but also
fierce rivals. Ein el-Hilweh, known for its lawlessness, is home to about
75,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants who were displaced by
war since the 1948 creation of Israel, and who had pinned hopes on
Arafat's promises he would lead them home.
At Cairo University, the
campus where Arafat earned an engineering decades ago, one student was
moved to tears.
"Every leader has both mistakes and
accomplishments," said 19-year-old Nadia, who gave only her first name. "I
think he was a very kind person. His people loved him very
much."
Foreign dignitaries expected to attend Arafat's
funeral in Cairo
Egypt will host a military funeral for Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat on Friday before he is buried in Ramallah,
officials said.
The following is a list of world leaders and
dignitaries who are expected to attend the funeral:
AFGHANISTAN -
Vice President Hedayat Amin Arsala
ARAB LEAGUE - Secretary-General
Amr Moussa
AUSTRIA - Vice Chancellor Hubert Gorbach
BANGLADESH - President Iajuddin Ahmed
BELGIUM - Foreign
Minister Karel De Gucht, Development and Foreign Aid Minister Armand De
Decker
BRAZIL - Cabinet Chief Jose Dirceu
BULGARIA - Foreign
Minister Solomon Passy
CANADA - Foreign Minister Pierre
Pettigrew
CHINA - Vice Premier Hui Liangyu
CYPRUS - Foreign
Minister George Iakovou, Presidential envoy Vassos
Lyssarides
DENMARK - Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller
EGYPT
- President Hosni Mubarak
EUROPEAN COMMISSION - Development and
Humanitarian Aid Commissioner-designate Louis Michel
EUROPEAN UNION
- Foreign policy chief Javier Solana
FINLAND - Foreign Minister
Erkki Tuomioja
FRANCE - Foreign Minister Michel
Barnier
GERMANY - Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer
GREECE -
Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis
INDONESIA - President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono
IRAN - Foreign Minister Kamal
Kharrazi
IRELAND - Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot
Ahern
JORDAN - King Abdullah II
LEBANON - President General
Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Omar Karami, Foreign Minister Mahmoud
Hammoud
LUXEMBOURG - Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister
Jean Asselborn
NETHERLANDS - Foreign Minister Bernard
Bot
NORWAY - Foreign Minister Jan Petersen
PAKISTAN - Prime
Minister Shaukat Aziz
PORTUGAL - Foreign Minister Antonio
Monteiro
ROMANIA - Presidential adviser Simona
Miculescu
RUSSIA - State Duma Chairman Boris Gryzlov, Deputy
Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov
SLOVAKIA - Foreign Minister
Eduard Kukan
SLOVENIA - Foreign Minister Ivo Vajgl
SOUTH
AFRICA - President Thabo Mbeki
SOUTH KOREA - Former Foreign
Minister Yoon Young-Kwan
SPAIN - Foreign Minister Miguel Angel
Moratinos
SWEDEN - Prime Minister Goran Persson
SWITZERLAND
- Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey
TUNISIA - President Zine
el-Abdine Ben Ali
TURKEY - Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Speaker of the Federal National Council
Mohammed Saeed al Kindi, Minister of Supreme Council Affairs Sheikh Fahim
bin Sultan al-Qassimi
UNITED KINGDOM - Foreign Secretary Jack
Straw
UNITED STATES - Assistant Secretary of State Williams
Burns
YEMEN - President Ali Abdullah Sale