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Yasser Arafat was buried in Ramallah on Friday in a chaotic scene of grief and gunfire at the compound where he spent his final years encircled by the Israeli army.
Firing into the air, Palestinian security men struggled to remove Arafat's body from a helicopter that flew in from Egypt and was quickly surrounded by a surging crowd of thousands at his Muqata headquarters, chanting his name.
The security men placed the coffin on a vehicle, climbed on top of it and held on tightly as it plied its way through a dense throng of weeping mourners who still managed to pull off the Palestinian flag draping the casket.
"With our blood and soul we redeem you, Abu Ammar," the crowd chanted, using the nom de guerre of their leader, who fought for decades for a state he never achieved.
At least four Palestinians were wounded, apparently by shots fired by the security forces or gunmen.
Arafat's body had been due to lie in state ahead of burial, but a Palestinian official said it was taken directly to the tree-shaded grave site of white marble instead.
"He was buried ahead of time because of the emotion of the crowd. We had no choice," one official said.
A Muslim cleric poured soil over the casket.
A few kilometers from the burial site, an explosion in a car killed two people in a reminder of the violence in the region.
The chaotic scenes in Ramallah were in high contrast to a funeral service earlier at a Cairo air base, where the public was kept away and even some world leaders were shut out by mistake by over-zealous Egyptian guards.
Ordinary Egyptians bade their own farewell to Yasser Arafat on Friday after being shut out of the official funeral because, they said, Arab rulers were afraid of an outpouring of popular feeling.
Some 400 people gathered after Friday prayers at the Azhar mosque in old Cairo shortly after kings, presidents and dignitaries from over 50 countries attended a military funeral for Arafat less than 10 kilometers away near Cairo airport.
Those at the mosque wanted to show their support of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and their respect for the man who died on Thursday after a 50-year career promoting the Palestinian struggle for statehood.
"As usual, the Arab governments, especially Egypt, have shown they are scared of having a popular event," said one of the protesters, lawyer Zyad el-Elaimy.
(China Daily November 13, 2004)
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