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Saddam's flag scrawl removed
23/01/2008 08:46 - (SA)
Baghdad - The Iraqi flag will no longer boast Saddam Hussein's handwritten praise to God nor its distinctive three stars, parliament decided on Tuesday.
The house passed a new flag law by 110 votes to 50 which will change the appearance of the standard but keep its horizontal red, white and black stripes.
Instead of the executed dictator's handwritten "Allahu Akhbar" (God is Greater), the phrase will be printed in green on the central white stripe in the Kufi form of Arabic script, parliament ruled.
The three green stars, which symbolised unity, freedom and socialism - the slogan of Saddam's Baath party - will also be dropped.
Under an earlier proposal, the stars were to be kept but the symbolism changed to represent peace, tolerance and justice.
Before being given new meaning by the Baath party, the stars had represented Arab unity between Iraq, Syria and Egypt.
Ethnic Kurds in particular had wanted the flag changed as it symbolised the Saddam-era regime which launched campaigns of persecution in which thousands were killed with poison gas.
Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region has its own flag but when it hosts international conferences it is obliged to fly the Iraqi national flag.
Parliament speaker Mahmud Mashhadani urged Iraqis to embrace the new standard, which he said would fly on "constitutional and non-constitutional institutions" for a year whereafter it would be redesigned.
"This flag will also from today be flown in the Kurdish region and on our embassies," he said.
Saddam was toppled by the US-led invasion of 2003. He was executed on December 30, 2006 for crimes against humanity.
- AFP
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