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Baghdad's Green Zone Going Public

January 21, 2009

BAGHDAD -- The so-called Green Zone, Baghdad's heavily fortified diplomatic and government compound, is going public.

The Iraqi government says it plans to open the Green Zone to the public for the first time since its establishment in 2003, Iraq's minister of state for national security, Sherwan al-Waeli, told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Iraq.

Al-Waeli said that because entire stretches of concrete walls have to be dismantled and checkpoints removed, the process will be gradual.

The United States formally relinquished control of the area on January 1, a date Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has proposed be recognized as the country’s “day of sovereignty.”

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/Baghdads_Green_Zone_Going_Public/1372996.html

Copyright (c) 2009. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.