RAMALLAH, West Bank -- The Palestinian people gave their all-time leader Yasser Arafat an emotional farewell, disrupting official burial plans in Ramallah Friday.
"The people did not want an official ceremony, they wanted to bid farewell to the only leader they have known in their own way ... with all the emotions and sorrow," said Palestinian Deputy Hanane Ashrawi.
Chaos and emotional scenes erupted when Arafat's body arrived in Ramallah earlier Friday aboard an Egyptian military helicopter that flew him from Cairo.
Ashrawi said Arafat was not only a national leader but was very close to the people and sympathized with their problems and causes.
"The people came to him regularly to the Muqataa when he was confined there to express their solidarity," Ashrawi said.
She noted the estimated 150,000 mourners who crammed the Muqataa headquarters "wanted to bid farewell to the big father spontaneously and with all the emotions they carried for him."
Arafat was buried hastily. His body had been scheduled to lie in state in a hall at Muqataa for two hours so mourners could pay last respects. But the hysteria that hit the crowd the minute the helicopter carrying the coffin touched down led to cancellation of the plan.
The grief-stricken Palestinians broke through security checks, encircling the helicopter the moment it landed.
They blocked the chopper's door, making it impossible to remove Arafat's coffin. Police fired shots in the air to disperse the frenzied crowd.
The flag-draped coffin was later unloaded and carried shoulder high by the sea of mourners who crammed Muqataa's yard.
Copyright 2004 by United Press International
