Karzai raises new Afghan flag

Tuesday February 5, 8:53 PM AFP

Interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai raised Afghanistan's new flag over the presidential palace and called on his countrymen to "take each other's hands" to rebuild the nation.

Karzai officially raised the country's black, red and green flag at a special ceremony celebrating a further step in the war-ravaged country's return to constitutional rule.

"Today marks a new era for our country. I hope my country will have peace forever," Karzai said Tuesday before hoisting the flag over the palace for the first time since his interim cabinet took office in December.

"We Afghan people have had many problems but from now on we must take each other's hands in a brotherly way and rebuild our country."

The flag was approved by the 1964 constitution as Afghanistan's national emblem but has not flown over government offices in Kabul since the early 1990s, before the Taliban took over.

The ceremony, which lasted about 15 minutes, was attended by cabinet ministers, diplomats and former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who had changed the national flag to green, white and black during his rule from 1992 to 1996.

The Taliban used a white flag after ousting Rabanni in 1996.

Karzai, dressed in his trademark ethnic coat and hat, inspected an honour guard before raising the flag in the grounds of the palace.

As he hoisted the bunting, soldiers raised a much larger version on a flagpole in one of the palace towers.

The black, red and green standard is generally known as the "king's flag" as it came to symbolise the rule of ex-king Mohammed Zahir Shah, who has lived in Rome since 1973 after his 40-year relatively peaceful reign was ended by a court coup.

The interim administration adopted the flag late last month and it was raised at Kabul's decrepit embassy in Washington during a visit there on January 28 by Karzai ahead of his talks with President George W. Bush.

Karzai's government was sworn in on December 22 following 23 years of conflict in which first the Soviets followed by rival warlords and finally the hardline Taliban Islamic militia ruled Afghanistan by force.

Accords reached at the historic inter-Afghan conference in Bonn, Germany in early December included the interim administration upholding the 1964 constitution which established parliamentary democracy, except for passages referring to the monarchy.

The constitution states that the flag should be "tricolour -- black, red and green -- all pieces joined together vertically from left to right in equal proportions, the breadth of each strip equalling half of its length."

In the middle of the flag is the insignia in white of the "mehrab", the arch in the mosque where the prayer leader stands, and the "menber", a many-tiered pulpit, flanked by two flags and ensconced in two sheaves of wheat.

The interim government determined that the flag should also carry the holy words "La Ee Laha Ielalaho Mohammad Rasoolalah (There is no god but Allah, and Mohammad is his messenger)".

In the country's eastern provinces, the king's flag continued to be flown during Rabanni's rule by a faction of royalist Pashtuns. Another faction, which supports Rabanni, flies the green, white and black flag.

Tension between the two factions spilled into violence last week at Gardez, capital of Paktia province, during which at least 50 people were killed.