Views differ on source of Arafat's fatal illness

MIDDLE EAST: The mystery surrounding the death of former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat was partially resolved yesterday by investigative journalists in Israel and the US who had access to his previously secret medical records.

The Israeli daily Haaretz and the New York Times confirmed that he died from a massive brain haemorrhage but did not agree on the cause of the abrupt deterioration in his health which led to the fatal episode on November 11th.

The New York Times said he was afflicted with a "bleeding disorder" caused by an unknown infection, while Haaretz said Israeli experts believe he "was poisoned in a dinner meal on October 12th, 2004".

Both accept that his fatal illness began after that meal, with vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhoea.

As the symptoms continued he was diagnosed as having flu, but was not given antibiotics which would have cleared up flu and countered bacteriological infection from food poisoning.

Two weeks later, when he had lost 3kg and had fallen into a stupor, he was treated for a low platelet count. His personal physician, Dr Ashraf Kurdi, did not see Arafat until October 28th, the day before he was flown to Paris for emergency care.

At the time, Dr Kurdi concluded that Arafat had been poisoned with an untraceable substance like that used by Israel in an attempt in Amman, Jordan, on Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal.

Haaretz quotes the French medical report as ruling out poison after tests were conducted for "well known toxins".

However an Israeli doctor suggested ricin, a poison which produces the symptoms that afflicted Arafat and for which the French ran no tests.

The doctor also said a natural bacterium in the food Arafat ate at the October 12th meal was another possibility.

Although Israel had considered liquidating Arafat, his security was lax. He did not have a food taster, he received sweets and medicines from visitors, and often took medicine not prescribed by his physicians.

Palestinian foreign minister Nasser Kidwa, a nephew of Arafat and one of the few people who had access to the report, reiterated the line adopted by the Palestinian Authority when he said it shed no light on the cause of Arafat's final illness.

However, publication of details of the report is certain to reconfirm the opinion held by most Palestinians that Arafat was poisoned by Israel.

Prime minister Ariel Sharon's office has dismissed the idea as "nonsense".