PLO Deputy Buried in Syria; Arafat Absent

After a chaotic and highly emotional funeral procession, assassinated Palestinian leader Khalil Wazir was buried Wednesday in a “cemetery of the martyrs” as hundreds of thousands of mourners jammed narrow streets, courtyards and apartment roofs, chanting Palestinian slogans and flashing “V for victory” signs.

The drama of the funeral was overshadowed politically by the fact that Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasser Arafat did not attend the rites for his top military deputy, better known by his nom de guerre, Abu Jihad. Arafat’s decision to meet Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi in Tripoli, rather than come to Damascus, dampened speculation that he would use the opportunity to smooth over longstanding differences with Syrian President Hafez Assad.

The Washington Post reported from Jerusalem that Wazir, 52, who was assassinated early Saturday in his home in Tunis, was gunned down by an Israeli commando squad after the killing was approved by Israel’s policy-making Inner Cabinet.

Quoting informed sources, the Post said the operation was planned and carried out by a combined team from Mossad, the Israeli spy agency, and the army, navy and air force. The actual shooting was committed by a special army commando unit known in Hebrew as the Sayeret Matkal and was overseen by several senior military commanders in a specially equipped Boeing 707, sources said.

The 10-member Inner Cabinet discussed the assassination twice before approving it last Wednesday without a formal vote, the Post reported.

At the funeral here, women in black dresses sobbed and men wailed as the coffin containing Wazir’s body finally was lowered into a simple grave under dusty pines and cypresses in the Yarmouk refugee camp south of Damascus. Syrian soldiers fired about 60 rounds into the air from Soviet-made Kalashnikov assault rifles.

The funeral cortege, under heavy Syrian protection, slowly made a seven-mile journey to the burial site behind the coffin, which was placed on a wreath-strewn gun carriage and draped in the red, white, green and black Palestinian flag. Wazir’s wife, Intissar, his mother and his five children followed the casket.

Women and children tossed red flowers at members of the procession, many of whom carried large photographs of Wazir and waved their hands in “V” signs. As the mourners passed mosques and houses, they walked into a din of Palestinian revolutionary songs and chanting of verses from the Koran.

When they reached the cemetery, many Palestinians rushed to lift the coffin from the gun carriage and passed it from hand to hand until it reached the grave.

Although Arafat did not attend the funeral of his boyhood friend, several major figures in the Palestinian movement, including George Habash, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Nayef Hawatmeh, secretary general of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, were on hand to pay their respects.

At the same time, they were seen as attempting to encourage the continuation of the Palestinian uprising in the occupied Israeli territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Wazir was considered to be one of the prime movers behind the current unrest, which began last December.

Speaking to the crowds, Intissar Wazir, Khalil Wazir’s widow, said: “We have vowed to die for Palestine. The cause did not die with the death of Abu Jihad. It will continue with the uprising in Palestine.”

“There is no God but God, and Abu Jihad is a martyr,” some mourners chanted, as others declared: “Palestine, Palestine, we are returning to you. Khalil Wazir was your son, O Palestine.”

Syria’s Assad has been feuding with Arafat since 1983, partly because he backed a rebellion against the Palestinian leader and partly because, as one analyst said, “they simply cannot stand one another personally.”

But “with all these senior PLO officials here,” one Western diplomat noted, “there is a real opportunity to heal their breach with Syria.”

Several observers suggested Wednesday night that Arafat had missed a rare chance to publicize the PLO position on the uprising. His appearance in Damascus, it was suggested, could reinvigorate his position as the strongest visible leader of the Palestinian revolution.

Arafat’s senior political adviser, Hani al Hasan, indicated to reporters that Syria had invited all the PLO chieftains to Damascus for a “funeral for a martyr” but did not accord Arafat any special consideration as head of the PLO, prompting the decision not to attend.

But Al Hasan also said the fact that various Palestinian leaders had gathered for Wazir’s funeral “means that all Palestinians regard the PLO as their representative” and that this could help repair relations with Syria.

Meanwhile, the Post also reported that Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who had raised objections to Wazir’s assassination at the first meeting of the Israeli Inner Cabinet, was silent at the meeting last Wednesday. Education Minister Yitzhak Navon, who also had objected to the plan, did not attend.

Wazir’s assassination has been discussed for years, but the operation apparently gained new impetus after a bus hijacking last month in which three Israeli civilians were killed. The Fatah military organization, which Wazir headed, claimed responsibility for the attack.