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Arafat rejects Sharon's one-way ticket to exile, preferring to become a martyr

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat again rejected surrendering to Israeli troops outside his West Bank headquarters April 2 and said he prefers to become a "martyr."

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whose troops have launched a ferocious offensive on the West Bank, had threatened Arafat earlier in the day with a "one-way ticket" to exile.

But when asked in an interview with the Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera if he will surrender to the troops, Arafat shouted, "Martyr! Martyr! Martyr!"

Sharon, who said in a newspaper interview in January that he was sorry for not having "liquidated" Arafat during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, says Arafat will have to go alone if he leaves Ramallah.

But he said Arafat could be accompanied by a foreign envoy in an operation that could be carried out by helicopter.

Arafat has been confined, with little food and water, to the first floor of his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah since the Israelis reoccupied the city March 29.

He continued to repeat his accusation that Sharon received a "green light" from Washington to conduct the sweeping raids on the West Bank after a series of suicide bombings by Palestinian militants.

He also added, "The whole world must know that Israel does not act and cannot act without America's agreement."

U.S. officials have denied giving the Israelis any approval for their military campaign, but have made no specific demand that they withdraw from the towns and cities they have occupied in the West Bank.

Shukan ST: April 12, 2002

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