France says no sign Arafat poisoned
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PARIS, Nov 14 (Reuters) - French Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on Sunday there was no indication Yasser Arafat was poisoned, although he had no access to medical files on the death of the Palestinian leader.
Arafat was flown from the West Bank to Paris on Oct. 29 suffering from stomach pains, diarrhoea and vomiting. He died in the early hours of Nov. 11 after suffering a brain haemorrhage.
"Nothing in the medical dossier, it seems, has shown that he was poisoned," Douste-Blazy told Radio J.
However, he stressed he had not seen the dossier itself either in his capacity as a doctor or a minister.
He said doctors at the military hospital just outside Paris had done everything they could from a medical standpoint to treat 75-year-old Arafat.
Rumours have been rife that he had been suffering from anything from cancer of the stomach to a rare blood disorder.
Hamas militants say he was poisoned by Israel, a theory which Palestinians officials have said doctors have ruled out.
But the head of the Palestinian mission in Paris, Leila Shahid, said on Saturday that poisoning was a possibility, although there was no evidence.
"It's quite possible that they (Israelis) poisoned him...I cannot say that medically we have proof of that," she told Europe 1 radio.
Hopes of the riddle being solved are slim. The French chief doctor who announced Arafat's death is bound by privacy laws invoked by Arafat's widow which prevent details being released.
Ruling out cancer or poisoning, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said in Paris on Tuesday that doctors had not identified the illness but: "We know what it is not."
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11/14/2004 09:01
RTR
