AMMAN, 13 November 2004 — The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s personal doctor has called for a public inquiry into the causes of his patient’s death in Paris.

“What has happened is unacceptable,” says Dr. Ashraf Al-Kurdi who had been Arafat’s personal physician for 22 years. “They have buried Abu Ammar without telling the world what he died of.”

Dr. Al-Kurdi, a former health minister of Jordan, said he was surprised that the French doctors had not contacted him at least to ask for Arafat’s medical records.

“If there is a reason for this mysterious behavior, the world has a right to know it,” Al-Kurdi said.

Al-Kurdi, a renowned neurologist, said Arafat suffered from the Parkinson’s disease. But this was not the cause of his death.

The brief statement by he French military hospital issued in the early hours of Thursday morning announcing Arafat’s death made no mention of the cause. Under French law no death certificate can be issued without mentioning the cause of death. It is, therefore, not clear how the French authorities could issue a certificate and release the body without fulfilling the legal requirements

Asked about the omission, which is in violation of French law, the hospital spokesman said the communiqué had been brief for reasons of confidentiality and in deference to the family of the deceased.

Arafat’s family, however, rejected the French claim that the family of the deceased had asked that cause of death not be mentioned.

“I am not aware of any such demand,” said Nasser Al-Qudwah, Arafat’s nephew and Palestine’s permanent delegate to the United Nations. “Our family is not hiding anything from the people.”

He said he did not know why the French communiqué had been formulated the way it was.

“We were not consulted,” he said. “The future will make many things clear.”

Qudwah said Arafat’s family trusted the French doctors and was not asking for an inquiry.

It was not clear from Al-Kurdi’s appeal who exactly should conduct any investigation into the causes of Arafat’s death. In any case, such an investigation would require an autopsy that is unlikely to be acceptable to the Palestinian leadership and Arafat’s family.

The French refusal to announce the cause of death has prompted many rumors and speculations. Hamas leader Khaled Al-Mashaal has claimed that agents of the Israeli secret service Mossad had poisoned Arafat over a period of several months. But Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian foreign minister, has denied that.

He told Arab News on Thursday that extensive blood tests carried out on Arafat and analyzed in French and German laboratories showed no traces of poisoning.

“The experts have tested Arafat’s blood for traces of virtually all kinds of poisons,” he said. “They have found nothing.”

Another rumour making the rounds in the region, especially in the West Bank, yesterday was that Arafat had died of a “shameful disease” that the French did not wish to reveal not to sully his memory. But PLO leaders have dismissed that as baseless.