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The adopted flag
by Jan Oskar Engene
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Just now, BBC is reporting that Mr. Westendorp decided about
the Bosnia and Herzegovina flag - with no details.
Jan Zrzavy, 4 February 1998
The BBC on-line did report a few details. It said that
Westendorp's choice was the flag with "a yellow triangle and
white stars on a dark blue background". That sounds much
like the commission's alternative 1,
though the blue was light in the commission proposal. BBC said
the Office of the High Representative also announced that the
flag would be used at the Nagano games.
Jan Oskar Engene, 4 February 1998
You can find the details at the newsroom of the BBC World Service:
Mark Sensen, 4 February 1998
The information that I will present now is based on the
"article" in the 15:00 radio news on HRT Radio 1
(Croatian national radio).
It was told that after the Parliament failed to adopt the new
flag, the High Representative Carlos Westerndorp is going to
decide and impose the flag. His decision is not yet officially
signed, but it was said that the design is fairly certain. The
design that is chosen by Westerndorp is the one with yellow
triangle and white stars - it was said that this one gained the
most votes (but it was not said from whom!? Possibly in the
Parliament session yesterday). The main objection in Bosnia and
Herzegovina Parliament was to the shade of the blue, and it is
considered that the flag that will be "decreeted" by
Westerndorp will have the "darker" blue background (I
assume that means the "standard" FOTW blue B, not the
navy blue B++).
It was also said that the final design will be known when
officially presented, but it is also said that it was not
specified when this presentation will be held. I guess that it
will not be until tomorrow (the real flag had to be made - it
takes some time, after all).
Zeljko Heimer, 4 February 1998
On TV news tonight it was reported that the Parliament
rejected all three "Westerndorp's" designs on its
session today (3 February). As it was scheduled, the Presidency
(the 3 members collective highest body) of Bosnia and Herzegovina
was supposed to confirm the flag adopted by the Parliament
tomorow (4 February), but I am not sure if they will even discuss
it now. In any case, it was said that Westerndorp (the UN High
Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, in fact the
"governor" of Bosnia and Herzegovina) will make choice
of a new flag if not adopted by regular means. He is entitled to
do so, and there is little doubt that he will do so, especially
regarding the fact that Nagano Olimpics will start soon.
Zeljko Heimer, 4 February 1998
I heard the BBC news about 30 minutes ago on NPR in Chicago.
They said the flag chosen was Royal Blue background, yellow
triangle (no details about triangle with point up or down or
sideways?), surrounded by yellow stars. They said the triangle
represented the three communites in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and
the stars represented the European Union to which they aspire to
belong.
Steve Stringfellow, 4 February 1998
Even if this explanation seems easily understandable it is the
first time now that I hear about it - the triangle should stand
for the geographic shape of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and any
refference to the nations was purposely avioded. At least, I
haven't yet seen the interpretation of the Office of the High
Representative this way, and I believe that this could be made up
(or "overheared") by the reporter. But, surely such
thought hasn't come up only to the reporter.
Zeljko Heimer, 5 February 1998
Actually, the spokesman for the Office of the High
Representative did say the triangle represents the three peoples
(see quote below).
There is a transcript of a press conference held at 11:30
yesterday, available from the Office of the High Representative
web site. I will quote the parts that are about flags, leaving
out the comments and questions on other matters.
There were some questions from the press about the new flag, concerning the design, its symbolism and its status:
In today's on-line edition of The Times (London) there is an
article reporting protests against the flag. The article said
"Sarajevo's intellectuals yesterday sent an open letter of
protest to Carlos Westendorp, the international High
Representative, arguing that the new flag he has imposed on
Bosnia is "the final way to kill" the nation." It
also said that "The intellectuals, led by Muhammad
Filipovic, Professor of Logic at Sarajevo University, have
demanded that Bosnians be allowed a referendum to decide their
new flag."
Source: Tom Walker: Bosnian intellectuals wash their
hands of flag 'like soap powder box', The Times, 5 February
1998
Jan Oskar Engene, 5 February 1998
The Office of the High Representative explained the number of
stars is not significant. The idea of the half stars is that
there were an arbitrary number of stars and these are the ones
that just happened to lie on the field of the flag. [That said
the number is defined in the specification sheet as seven whole
stars and two half stars.]
Graham Bartram, 5 February 1998
The flag is depicted in an updated BBC News on-line report
available here.
The flag depicted is essentially Alternative 1 of the commission
on flags, only with a darker blue and yellow colours and roughly
3:5 in proportions. The triangle is still yellow (dark yellow)
and the stars are white. BBC's report described the design this
way:
Jan Oskar Engene, 4 February 1998
Transcript: Joint Press Conference 5 February 1998, 1130 Hours (from Nato/Ifor site - Not availible now)
Mark Sensen, 7 February 1998
The official image of the new Bosnian flag can be seen on the World Flag Database. The
flag was drawn from the specification sheets supplied by the
Office of the High Representative and uses Pantone Reflex Blue
and Pantone 116C (the same as the European Union's flag). The one
of the Office of the High Representative website is a resized
version of the original GIF file.
The colour was changed at the last minute (this morning and I had
to redo the image so that it could be released to journalists).
The Office of the High Representative finally agreed that pale
blue, yellow and white didn't make for a very striking flag. The
original idea was that the blue was United Nations blue, but
United Nations blue is actually quite a lot darker, but for some
reason the flags they have in Sarajevo are very faded! The flag
is 1:2. They did consider 2:3 but decided to follow the trend of
Balkan countries and go for 1:2. I don't know why the BBC screwed
up the flag image, they had an accurate image first thing this
morning - in fact they were the first media organization to do
so.
Graham Bartram, 5 February 1998
The original three proposals all used pale blue (supposedly UN
blue, but actually even lighter). Only when the final design had
been selected was it decided to change the blue to EU blue
instead. This was to make the contrast greater and made the flag
look a whole lot better.
Graham Bartram, 22 October 1998
I was surprised that the Croatian 'government' sponsored
magazine Vjesnik printed a "interview" with me.
The journalist Mario Marusic never talked to me. Two weeks ago I
was however interviewed by the Bosnian correspondent in Holland
for the Sarajevo magazine Slobodna Bosna. In that magazine
was my involvement in the new Bosnian flag printed, as far I can
see correct. In that magazine is clearly stated that I was
involved in the new flag, and not that I was the designer. Vjesnik
nicked the story from Slobodna Bosna. And it seems that Vjesnik
journalist Mario Marusic doesn't read well.
I haven't designed the new Bosnian flag. The design was made by a
Bosnian committee which included Bosnians, Serbs and Croats. That
made three designs. On 3 February the Bosnian parliament couldn't
reach agreement on one of these designs. My involvement - as
office holder of the Flag Institute in Chester, since the death
of William Crampton - was that I was consulted by the High
Representative on proportions of flags in the Balkans. The
question was if the flag should be 1:2 or 2:3. The original
designs were made in proportions 1:2. I advised to keep the flag
in those proportions. The second time I (for the Flag Institute)
was involved was about an hour before the announcement of the
High Representative which design he would choose. But he wanted
to change the colour UN blue into Europe blue. He asked for the
right colours shades of the flag of Europe. I could give them.
Probably I was the first vexillologist in the world who knew
which would be the new Bosnia flag. My collegue Graham Bartram
made for the Flag Institute an EPS image of the flag design,
which was used by the High Representative as the official EPS
image.
That is my whole involvement. No way that I designed that flag.
In the next issue of the Dutch flagmagazine Vlaggentijdschrift
Vexilla Nostra (issued this week) and the Flag Institute's
magazine Flagmaster (issued in about two weeks) you can
read the full story. But, please, don't make up that I designed
the flag of Bosnia. That would be too great an honour for me.
Jos Poels, 22 February 1998