Egypt prepares to host Arafat funeral in land of his birth

CAIRO, Nov 11 (AFP) - Egypt was preparing Thursday to host a military funeral for the late Yasser Arafat in what will be the Palestinian leader's last return to his country of birth before being buried in his Ramallah compound.
The funeral arrangements for Arafat, whose life had come to symbolise the decades-old Palestinian struggle for a homeland, highlighted the region's divisions even after his death.
He had expressed a wish to be laid to rest in Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of their promised future state, but Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon categorically ruled out that possibility.
A fully-fledged funeral attended by the world's leaders also appeared impossible in the Palestinian territories, where tough restrictions have been imposed by Israel during the four-year-old uprising.
After days of bitter behind-the-scenes wrangling before Arafat's death in a Paris hospital Thursday, all sides agreed to a compromise consisting of a funeral in Egypt and a burial inside the Ramallah compound where he spent the last three years of his life under virtual house arrest.
His body was expected to be flown in from France later Thursday, to be followed by a brief ceremony, which will not be open to the public and the exact schedule of which remains to be announced by the Egyptian authorities.
Arafat, who was born in Egypt in 1929, will be granted military honours, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's office said in a statement.
Funeral prayers are expected to be held at the Faisal mosque near Cairo international airport immediately after the last Friday prayers of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Then the ceremony is expected to follow the protocol used for the funerals of Egyptian presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1970 and Anwar Sadat in 1981. He is then expected to be flown by air force helicopter to the West Bank city of Ramallah.
According to an official Palestinian statement released in Ramallah, Arafat is due to be buried inside his West Bank headquarters late in the afternoon.
Arafat's body was expected to be flown back to the town of Ramallah from Cairo in the early afternoon and would lie in the Muqataa for people to pay their final respects from around 2:45 pm.
Tight security was enforced in the airport area on Thursday and identity checks were being carried out in Heliopolis, a Cairo suburb which also houses Mubarak's offices and residence.
The United States, which backed Israeli moves to isolate Arafat since the start of the intifada in 2000, announced it was sending its special Middle East envoy, William Burns.
France, whose popularity among the Palestinians was further boosted when it welcomed the ailing leader late last month and offered treatment at a military hospital near Paris, said it would send Foreign Minister Michel Barnier.
Spain is to be represented by Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who spent years shuttling for the EU between the Israeli and Palestinians to promote the peace process and developed a close relationship with Arafat.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, another trusted intermediary, said he would attend the ceremony, while the European Union will be represented by the Dutch foreign minister, whose country holds the body's rotating presidency.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has also made it known he will attend, but the Italians were sending no senior official to the funeral.
Among the heads of state representing their countries at the ceremony in Cairo, will be Jordanian King Abdullah, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali as well as Presidents Iajuddin Ahmed of Bangladesh and newly-elected Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia.
Scores of foreign ministers will also make the journey for the highest-profile gathering of international leaders in the region since the funeral of former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad in 2000.
One Palestinian delegation was expected to travel to Cairo for the ceremony, while another team was due to stay behind in Ramallah to attend the burial at the Muqataa compound.

11/11/2004 15:14 GMT - AFP