216.26.163.62/2004/me_palestinians_11_04.html
COM Thursday, November 4, 2004 RAMALLAH Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has died. Israeli and Palestinian officials said Arafat died on Thursday in a milit ary hospital in Paris. They said Arafat was deemed clinically dead, but is still attached to life support systems on the insistence of his wife, Suha. Palestinan Authority's Yasser Arafat: Abbas and Qurei sought to acquire his power to allocate money as the PA chairman departed for Paris. But as he boarded a Jordanian Air Force helicopter, Arafat refused. "I'm still alive, thank God, so don't worry," Arafat was quoted as saying.
Reut ers/Loay Abu Haykel "He is dead, but neither Arafat's wife nor the Palestinian leadership is ready to announce this," a PA official said. The problem is that Arafat is still the only Palestinian official who can pay the bills.
Even his wife is said to be unaware of how to access the funds. Arafat continues to hold the purse strings to the Palestinian finances. F or the last decade, he has been the final, and often only word on paymen t to everybody from the suicide bomber to the janitor. Before he left for Paris, Arafat approved a three-member emergency commit tee to operate the PA and PLO in his absence. Officials said Ahmed Qurei was meant to run the PA's daily affairs while Mahmoud Abbas was appoint ed acting chairman of the PLO. Palestine National Council chairman Salim Zaanoun, the third member of th e committee, was said to be a symbolic figure. Abbas and Qurei sought to acquire Arafat's power to allocate money during the absence of the PA chairman. But as he boarded a Jordanian Air Force helicopter for Amman, Arafat refused. "I'm still alive, thank God, so don't worry," Arafat was quoted as saying . Israeli officials confirmed that Arafat died on Thursday, Middle East New sline reported. They said Arafat was termed brain dead and physicians ha ve stopped attending to him. For Palestinians, the main question is where is Arafat's money? Issam Abu Issa knows how Arafat appropriated and concealed money. Abu Iss a was the founder and chairman of the Palestine International Bank from 1996 until he fled to Qatar in 2000. "Rather than use donor funds for their intended purposes, Arafat regularl y diverted money to his own accounts," Abu Issa said in a report for Mid dle East Quarterly. "It is amazing that some US officials still see th e Palestinian Authority as a partner even after US congressional recor ds revealed authenticated PLO papers signed by Arafat in which he instru cted his staff to divert donors' money to projects benefiting himself, h is family and his associates." Arafat controls billions of dollars meant for the Palestinian people.
His personal fortune has been estimated at between $2 and $3 billion, mos t of it in Swiss bank accounts. In 1997, the PA auditor's office said in its financial report that $326 m illion, or 43 percent of the annual budget, was "missing." The United States has been supporting former PA security chief Mohammed D ahlan as Arafat's successor. To his friends in the Bush administration, Dahlan, 43, has all the qualities for Arab leadership: a smooth talker a nd brutal cop. Arafat asked Dahlan to accompany him to Paris in a move d esigned to keep him out of the Gaza Strip and any coup plot. Another challenger has been Fatah Secretary-general Marwan Barghouti, sen tenced to life in prison for a series of terrorist attacks. Barghouti, 4 4, has followers in the West Bank but does not appear to have the iron w ill necessary to face Arafat loyalists. Neither Israeli nor PA officials have been told much about Arafat's condi tion, and the only one authorized to issue information from his hospital bedside is the chairman's wife, Suha.
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