ARAFAT'S DEATH NOT RULED A HOMICIDE BY RUSSIAN EXPERTS

 

Yasser Arafat's death had become somewhat of an item of contention with Palestinians and his widow for a while. Although she ordered his body cremated immediately after death, she had then given rise to suspicions by tending the fires of conspiracy when she asked for exhumation and analysis of his remains during the eight long years between his death and the exhumation of his remains.

There always was something strange about his death, she asserted, but not strange enough to truly warrant a full blown investigation at the time of his death.  It was exactly this apathy on the part of the French authorities - while forgetting her own - that the widow Arafat cited as possibly underlying a conspiracy to hide the true causes of her husband's death.

But Arafat had been in ill health for a while, especially after the plane crash he suffered a few years before his death, in which members of the crew perished and Arafat was harmed. 

The exhumation was followed by separate analysis, with the French and the Swiss on opposite camps claiming that Arafat was/was not poisoned with a small dose of Polonium.

One of the things that the opponents of the homicide theory cite, is that Arafat never lost one hair on his head.  An example of Polonium poisoning was quite clear in Aleksander Litvinienko's poisoning in London a few years ago.  The Russian ex-KGB died a slow death, literally in full view of the press, and there was no denying what polonium wrought on his body, from his bald head to his jaundiced, deathly complexion.

In addition, some trace amounts of radioactive polonium, the kind whose traces were found in minute amounts in Arafat's ashes, are present in the environment naturally.

To balance the question and find a solution to the diatribe, entered Russian researchers, whose study has now resulted in a published report that deems Arafat's death natural.  

Although the French medical authorities have declared the Palestinian leader's death natural by a condition called disseminated intravascular coagulation, the widow Arafat dismissed both that coroner's report and the new analysis which deemed the polonium presence natural.  

Ria Novosti, the Russian news agency, has reported that Russia's Federal Medical Biological Agency found Arafat's death to be natural and has echoed the French's contention that no foul play was involved. 

It remains to be seen then, if the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinians population at large will believe the latest conclusion on the death of their leader. 

Op-Ed

Source : France 24/ 12.26.13