May 14, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 11, 1424

BAGHDAD, May 13: About a hundred Iraqis marched Tuesday in support of Iraq’s long-abolished monarchy as around the same number held a demonstration calling for a “democratic republic.”

“Constitutional monarchy under the leadership of emir Ali is the hope of Iraq,” read a banner.

The marchers had gathered outside the Palestine Hotel, home to many foreign correspondents in central Baghdad.

Iraq’s monarchy was deposed in 1958 and Al-Shareef Ali bin al-Hussein, head of the Constitutional Monarchy Movement, lays claim to the throne.

His spokesman in Baghdad Faisal Karagholi told reporters he would return “in a few days” from his London exile.

Karagholi called for a nation-wide referendum to be held to decide if Iraq should remain a republic or become a constitutional monarchy.

When back in Iraq, Al-Shareef Ali may opt to join the seven-member leadership committee formed by Iraqi opposition groups, he also said.

The US-led coalition running post-war Iraq has said the committee would be the “nucleus” of an interim government to be elected or selected by a national congress slated to convene before the end of the month.

Meanwhile, members of the Duleimi tribe, which originates from Iraq’s eastern Anbar region, staged another demonstration asking that the state’s official name be changed from “Republic of Iraq” to the “Democratic Republic of Iraq.”

The Duleimis rallied in front of the Pentagon’s Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) headquarters, set up in one of the palaces of the ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.—AFP