 Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat kisses Russian President Boris Yeltsin |
RAMALLAH, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas on Sunday revealed that Russia will take part in investigating the
death of his predecessor Yasser Arafat alongside France and
Switzerland.
"There is a complete coordination between us and the French and also
experts from the Russian government to exhume Arafat's body," Abbas said
during a festival in the West Bank city of Ramallah marking the eighth
anniversary of Arafat's death.
Arafat died at a French hospital from an undisclosed or unknown
reason. In July, a report by the pan-Arab news network al-Jazeera said
that a Swiss lab tested Arafat's personal belongings and found
significant traces of radioactive polonium-210 on his clothes and
toothbrush.
Swiss and French experts are scheduled to exhume Arafat's body on Nov. 27.
"We deal seriously and with full responsibility with anything new
emerging in this sensitive and important case," Abbas said, adding that
all ensuing results will be released to the public.
Abdullah al-Basheer, the head of a Palestinian committee that
oversees Arafat's death investigation, said that Russia has agreed to
join the investigation according to an official request by the
Palestinian National Authority.
Al-Basheer said the Russian government will send two doctors to take
part in the examination and to take samples from Arafat's body, and that
the Russians will work with the French and Swiss " to make sure that
the results of the investigations are in the right context."
He noted that opening Arafat's grave would take a month "since it was built in a special way."
Fayed Mustafa, the Palestinian ambassador to Russia, said it is still
unclear when the Russian experts will arrive in the Palestinian
territories. Also, a source in the Russian embassy in the West Bank said
there was no information available yet about the participation of
Russia in the investigation.
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