IRAQ: KURDISTAN DROPS IRAQI FLAG

Erbil, 31 August (AKI) - The president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, has ordered the removal of the Iraqi national flag from all public buildings - a move which further signals the region's growing independence from Baghdad. The president's decree says that "only the Kurdish flag must be hoisted above the offices and institutions of the government of Iraqi Kurdistan, the peshmerga (local Kurdish fighters), and at check-points."

The decree also allows for the Iraqi national flag - red white and black horizontal stripes, with at the centre three green stars and the words Allahu Akbar (God is Great) - to be flown at "official functions", but without the religious phrase.

In addition political parties active in Kurdistan will be permitted to fly their own banners together with the Kurdistan flag.

In another development members of the Kurdistan regional parliament belonging to the Kurdish Patriotic Union of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, have proposed the introduction of a Kurdistan national anthem.
adnki