BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi parliament's move to adopt a new, temporary
national flag has provoked an outcry, with one major province refusing to fly it
and ordinary Iraqis attaching the old flag to their cars in a silent protest.
Iraqis have flooded chat rooms on the Internet with criticism of this week's
decision, which had long been demanded by the Kurdish minority who say the
Saddam Hussein-era banner was a reminder of his brutality.
Many Iraqi Arabs disagree. They see the old flag as having little to do with
Saddam, a Sunni Arab, but as one under which countless soldiers died fighting
for in various wars.
"It's shameful. Thousands of Iraqis lost their lives so this flag could fly ...
Changing the flag ignores their sacrifice," said one Iraqi in a comment posted
on an Arab chat room.
In fact, the new flag is very similar to the old one.
It is still red, white and black, but three green stars in the centre
representing unity, freedom and socialism, the motto of Saddam's now outlawed
Baath party, have been removed.
The phrase Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest), added in green Arabic script on
Saddam's orders during the 1991 Gulf War, remains, but no longer in his
handwriting.
The provincial council in western Anbar province and leaders of a council of
tribal sheikhs that have allied with U.S. forces in the vast region have decided
not to fly the new flag, the U.S.-backed al-Hurra television station reported on
Saturday.
Officials from Anbar's provincial council could not be reached for comment, but
officials in Falluja, one of the key cities in the province and once a Sunni
Arab insurgent stronghold, expressed hostility to the new flag.
"This is a disaster ... I am using the old flag in my office and at home," the
mayor of Falluja, Saad Rasheed, told Reuters, adding he would fly the new one
only if the Anbar provincial council decided to do so.
A long-running debate over whether to change the flag had been given urgency by
a planned pan-Arab meeting of politicians in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan on
March 10. Kurdish officials had refused to fly the old flag, which is banned in
Kurdistan.
The new flag will last for only one year, while debate will continue on what the
final banner should look like.
SYMBOLICALLY IMPORTANT
Some MPs have said Tuesday's parliamentary vote was symbolically important,
changing a flag first flown after a coup by the Baath party in 1963. Saddam
formally took power in 1979.
Sheikh Efan al-Issawi, a tribal leader in Falluja, said U.S. soldiers had asked
him if he would fly the new flag.
"I told them we will use the old Iraqi flag because it represents the unity of
Iraq. We do not believe it represents a certain ruler," he said, referring to
Saddam.
Kurds associate the old flag with Saddam's genocidal Anfal campaign against them
in the late 1980s in which tens of thousands of people were bombed, shot and
gassed.
Many Iraqis have objected to the Kurds forcing the change. In Baghdad, some
motorists have fixed the old flag to their car antennas.
"They (the Kurds) say Saddam made it, but he did not. We refuse to change the
flag because it represents us all," said Amir Saadoun, a resident of Baghdad.
