Suha Arafat weeps as Yasser Arafat?s coffin is taken to a plane on its way to Cairo at an airbase near Paris. (AP)

Ramallah (West Bank), Nov. 12 (Reuters): It was hard to tell who was who in the melee as the body of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was brought home for burial.

But one striking absence in Ramallah was the distinctive blonde head of his wife, Suha. Despised by many Palestinians for steering clear of the West Bank or Gaza Strip during a four-year-old uprising, Suha stirred even greater anger for isolating their beloved leader during his dying days in a French hospital. ?I?m sure she was fearing the reaction of the Palestinian people,? said 25-year-old Rania Zabaneh after Arafat was buried in scenes of chaotic fervour at his old West Bank headquarters.

?Anything could have happened to her,? she said. Palestinians damn Suha, 41, as a self-styled ?queen? who damaged the dignity of the man who symbolised their national cause and muddied his succession by keeping those needing to know in the dark about his condition.

She accused his aides, veteran comrades who had never been easy with Arafat?s marriage in 1992 to a woman half his age, of trying to ?bury him alive?. Suha allowed only those she saw fit to visit him before he was declared dead yesterday.

?She betrayed the Palestinian people. I only respect her because of the president,? said Mohammed Mahmoud Qasi, 18, near the graveside.

Many Palestinians were surprised when word trickled out of the Muslim Arafat?s marriage to Suha, a Christian from the well-known Tawil family in Ramallah.