Arafat 'no worse, no better'

2004-11-06 09:02

Clamart - Yasser Arafat was hovering "between life and death" in a coma, no worse but also no better than he was a day earlier, Palestinian and French officials said.

There was still no official public diagnosis on Friday to explain the Palestinian leader's critical condition. Outside the French military hospital where the 75-year-old has been treated for the past week, well-wishers maintained a worried vigil.

Lit by the glare of TV camera lights, a hospital spokesperson who on Thursday denied that Arafat was dead issued a short update on Friday evening.

"The state of President Yasser Arafat's health has not worsened. It is considered stable since the previous health bulletin," said General Christian Estripeau. He took no questions.

Confusion about condition

Earlier, Leila Shahid, the Palestinian envoy to France, strongly denied persistent French and Israeli media reports that Arafat was being kept alive on life support.

"I can assure you that there is no brain death," Shahid told French RTL radio. "He is in a coma. We don't know the type but it's a reversible coma. ... Today we can say that, given his condition and age, he is at a critical point between life and death."

French President Jacques Chirac, who visited Arafat on Thursday, added a note of caution to the many conflicting reports. "I would take care about referring to a before or an after Arafat," he told a news conference in Brussels.

The Palestinian Liberation Organisation's political chief, Farouk Kaddoumi, fuelled confusion by saying after visiting the hospital on Friday evening that information circulating about Arafat "is completely inaccurate."

He did not elaborate, but told reporters that Palestinian officials agreed with Arafat's medical team that only it would be authorised to issue bulletins about his health.

A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Arafat's doctors told Kaddoumi they were awaiting the results of the latest blood tests before proceeding with new treatments. He said the test results were due within three days, and there was no threat to Arafat's life at this stage.

Supporters on edge

Arafat supporters remained on edge, day and night, outside the sprawling concrete, metal and glass hospital. In an unusual interfaith moment, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi from New York left flowers for Arafat at the front gate.

A forest of television cameras and TV trucks, generators humming, satellite dishes pointing skyward, ran the length of the street outside, which was guarded by dozens of police.

Supporters hung a large, bed sheet-sized Palestinian flag on the hospital's perimeter wall alongside messages of support.

In Gaza City, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath denied that Arafat was clinically dead or on a life support system, but voiced concern that there had been no notable improvement. - AP

- SAPA