The United Nations missions of Iraq and Libya here are flying their national flags at full-staff – to the outrage of bruised New Yorkers still grieving over the World Trade Center terrorist attack.
The flags are a flap-in-the-face, residents said – especially since embassy and U.N. mission flags from nations around the globe, including Cuba and Yemen, have been at half-staff since last week in an international show of sorrow.
“Wow!” neighbor Tom Vida said when Libya’s full-staff standard was pointed out to him – a solid green banner hanging limply from a pole outside its U.N. mission at 309 E. 48th St.
At the top of the 22-story mission, a second Libyan flag also flies at full-staff, visible on 48th Street from First, Second and Third avenues.
“I think it’s pretty insulting, to say the least – a lack of respect for mankind,” said Vida, who is an assistant super at nearby 100 United Nations Plaza.
“Lovely neighbors we have,” he added sarcastically.
“We really can’t believe it,” said one of a contingent of four police officers sent yesterday to patrol the Iraqi mission at 14 E. 79th St.
The patrols were ordered after The Post revealed yesterday that the mission was still flying the Iraqi flag at full-staff.
Mission officials had hinted the reason might be a “broken” flagpole.
Asked yesterday if the flagpole was still broken, or being repaired, a middle-aged, mustachioed man who answered the mission door said only, “I am very sorry. We cannot comment.
“Our ambassador is not here,” he added.
Asked if he needed donations for the repair, or for a new flagpole, he answered, “You have to leave.”
He declined to give his name.
Libyan officials also declined to explain why their flag hasn’t been lowered.
The Algerian U.N. mission’s flag flew at full-staff yesterday morning – but was lowered immediately when the oversight was pointed out by The Post. Officials there said the flag had been at half-staff since the attack.
Elsewhere around the city yesterday, flags from around the world continued at half-staff.
At the U.N. complex, the U.N. flag was at half-staff, and the member-nation flags were gone altogether.
The U.N. mission flag for Yemen – where tensions flared after the USS Cole was bombed last year – flew at half-staff, as did the flags for Cuba, Tunisia, Pakistan and Russia.
The U.N. missions from Sudan and Syria have no flag poles.
Experts said there’s little surprise in the flag effrontery of Libya and Iraq, given their strained relations with the United States.
The United States continues to blame Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy for downing Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 – and has maintained economic sanctions against Libya for many years.
The United States has also maintained sanctions against Iraq since kicking Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait in the Gulf War, and continues to fly missions over its airspace, noted Dr. Gary Sick, who directs the Middle East Institute at Columbia University.
“Saddam has even continued to criticize the U.S. since the trade center collapse,” Sick said.
Still, not everyone was outraged over the flag flap. Bronx carpenter Simon Munox is much more concerned about the loss of life than any flag.
“More important are my friends and family who have lost people,” he said.