(10 Feb 2008)
1. National Parliament of Kurdistan building sign reading: (English) "Kurdistan National Assembly - Iraq"
2. Wide of guards standing either side of red carpet in front of National Parliament building
3. Mid of the new Iraqi flag and guards
4. Various of guards
5. Mid of Massoud al Barazani, President of Kurdistan region and Adnan al-Mufti, Speaker of National Assembly, watching flag ceremony
6. Al-Mufti, approaching flag pole with guard
7. Tilt-up of al-Mufti hoisting the new Iraqi flag
8. Al-Mufti looking at raised flag
9. Various of band playing
10. The flag of Kurdistan region (left) and the new Iraqi flag flying (right)
11. Close-up of new Iraqi flag
12. Al-Mufti walking back to officials after hoisting flag
13. Officials surrounding al-Mufti
14. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Adnan al-Mufti, Speaker of National Assembly:
"Hoisting the Iraqi flag on the National Parliament of Kurdistan is a reply to the misunderstanding and feeling that the Kurds are far from the Iraqi government and that they are far away from the Iraqi constitution. Of course we (the Kurdish Parliament) replied to these accusations. This has come (hoisting the new Iraqi flag) as a reply to those who represent their own opinions and do not want good for a new Iraq and Iraqis."
15. National Parliament building
STORYLINE:
Officials in Irbil hoisted the new Iraqi flag at a special flag raising ceremony on Sunday, almost a week after the new banner was flown over the Iraqi Cabinet building.
Last week officials in Sadr city in Baghdad were the first to fly the new flag.
In a symbolic break with the past, the new flag is void of the three green stars of Saddam Hussein's ousted Baath Party.
The calligraphy of the Arabic words "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Great," which were added after Saddam's army invaded Kuwait in 1990, remain at the centre of the flag.
Their design - in Saddam's own handwriting - was changed to a different script months after his April 2003 ouster, although many houses continued to fly the old flag.
Earlier this month, Iraq's parliament voted to remove Saddam-era emblems from the banner, the stars thought to represent the three objectives of Saddam's now-dissolved party: unity, freedom and socialism.
After raising the flag on the grounds of the National Parliament of Kurdistan, Adnan al-Mufti, Speaker of National Assembly said raising the flag was proof that Iraq and Kurdistan are working together:
"Hoisting the Iraqi flag on the National Parliament of Kurdistan is a reply to the misunderstanding and feeling that the Kurds are far from the Iraqi government and that they are far away from the Iraqi constitution," he said after the ceremony.
The changes were prompted by a row with Iraq's Kurdish minority, who threatened not to fly the old banner during a pan-Arab meeting in the Kurdish-run north later this month.
Many Kurds remember Saddam's forces hoisting the Iraqi flag during campaigns of persecution in the 1980s that saw more than 100-thousand Kurds brutally poisoned and killed.
The new flag is valid for only one year, after which parliament must pass another law to establish a permanent design.
Some Sunnis objected to the change, arguing it was a blow to national pride.
The Arab-Kurdish differences over the Iraqi flag go to the heart of a wider debate over the future shape of Iraq.
A constitution adopted in a nationwide referendum in 2005 recognises Kurdish self-rule and provides a legal mechanism for other areas to govern themselves.
They failed to win on that point.
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