Loyalists gather as Arafat heads to Paris for treatment

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat flew to Paris for treatment of a serious illness today, breaking free from nearly three years of Israeli-imposed confinement at his battered compound, but leaving behind a people in disarray.

Arafat’s sombre departure – a few hundred loyalists gathered on a rain-soaked tarmac – stood in marked contrast to his triumphant arrival in the Palestinian lands a decade ago, when he held out the promise of statehood.