![[Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina]](../images/b/ba-fed.gif)
by Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
Last modified: 2006-06-09 by dov gutterman
Keywords: bosnia and herzegovina | bosnia | herzegovina | balkans | fleur-de-lys | muslim | herzeg-bosnia | chequy | croat | federation of bosnia and herzegovina |
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by Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
See:
Cantons
Municipalities
See also:
According to Znamierowski [zna99]
(P. 155) the Croat-Muslim Federation should be called:
Bosniak-Croat Federation; "Red stands for the Croats, green
for the Bosniak people and white for purity and peace."
Officially Bosnian (with n) is any inhabitant of
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bosniak (with k) is that part of the
population formerly known as Muslim.
Marcus Schmoger, 30 July 2000
Bosniak-Croat Federation is not official name and never was
(nither Croat-Muslim Federation, nor anything similar) - it is
just a "description" or "explanation" of the
easily confuzing and misleading name of that part of the state
that is officially called "Federacija Bosna i
Hercegovina" i.e. Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Željko Heimer, 30 July 2000
It is not Federacija Bosna i Hercegovina, but Federacija Bosne
i Hercegovine, using the genitive case, just to show that it is
indeed a geographical federation between Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Muhamed Mesic, 7 November 2001
I just checked <www.fbih.gov.ba>
- the government of FBiH site, that confirms the name as Muhamed
suggested - it is clear on several places (including the
Constitution available on the site in three languages) - so it
should be "Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine". However,
this explanantion is not correct (though gramattically it could
be interpreted that way, certainly). However, the Federation is
the federation of 10 cantons and not of two countries, one called
Bosnia and the other Herzegovina.
Željko Heimer, 9 November 2001
The flag was finaly adopted on 5 November 1996.
Green on the flag and golden fleur-de-lys on green shield on the
arms stand for Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) and red on the flag and
chequy shield for Bosnian Croats. The ten golden stars on blue,
it is said to represent the 10 regions (velezupa, pl. velezupe;
with hachek over z) of the Federation.
Before the adoption of the flag, there were three flags hoisted
in the sessions of the Parlament of Federation - the flag of
Bosnia-Herzegovina (white whith arms), the flag of Bosian Muslims (green-white-green 1:2:1
with crescent), and the flag of the Croatian
Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia (i.e. the flag of Bosnian Croats,
red-white-blue with chequy arms).
Željko Heimer, 8 December 1996
I had a chance to take a good look on the (quite new and ugly)
flag of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (that is, Muslim and
Croat entity). I have already reported on it, and posted some
images, but now I can confirm some things that were doubtful. The
flag that I saw was on TV interview with the defence minister of
the Federation, so I guess, as official as it should be.
The shield in the middle is bordered in gold (yellow) all around,
as well as the border between the upper white part and lower blue
part. Similarly, the shield with the fleur de lys is bordered in
gold (but with a bit thinner line). The field of this shield is
green (sometimes reported as blue). The other shield (Croatian
chequy) is not bordered with gold, but with a red line (and is
really of a different shape than the shield with fleur-de-lis).
The stars in the lower blue part are white (not golden as
reported before), and there are 10 sixpointed stars. The position
of the stars is an interesting point. The uppermost star is
rotated 90 degrees to what one is used to think of a sixpointed
star (i.e. Magen David). So, it is pointing left to right, not
up-down. The other stars are rotated accordingly to be in the
same position towards the middle of the circle. Hope that this
description makes some sense.
I must say that this detail looks rather unusual and could be a
good starting point for the making of a serious flag. I hope
someone will notice it.
Željko Heimer, 8 February 1997
Today I visited Jos Poels, and he just received a letter from the embassy of Bosnia-Herzegovina in The Hague the day before yesterday. It included a black/white image and the following text:
Mark Sensen, 8 February 1997
Concering 'Pavillons nationaux et marques distinctives' [pay00], (Fig. 2. Cro.-Bos.
Federation) to my best knowlage the "silver" fields in
the Croatian chequy shield could (should) be white. However, I
have not received any official images of this flag yet.
Željko Heimer, 9 January 2001
B&H review i.e. page BO 2.1 in Album 2000 [pay00]:
Bosnia and Herzegovina Federation - (CSW/--- 1:2) Regarding the
name, I believe that the official documents use name
"Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina" in Englsh
instead. Anyway, I agree with usage marks (though cf. on the sea
usage I said at the BA page). Regarding the ratio, the
consturction details given in Album 2000 ((1+2+1):2) and some
minor details of the CoA I can finally determined say that it's
wrong. I have finally found some documents providing the details
of this flag. I leave the sources and in detailed analysis for an
other message, telling here only that the flag ratio is
prescribed 3:5, the stripes are in proportion 1+3+1 (i.e. white
pannel is three times wider then each of the red and green
stripes). Also, that make the white panel square. The CoA is
apparently width of equal to half the flag hoist. Yellow is
called "golden-yellow" and is then probably darker the
the yellow used in B&H flag, the Croatian shield is bordered
red (yellow in Album) and Argent squares of the chequy need not
to be silver - they are called simply white in the regulations.
Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
Znamierowsky 99 [zna99] show wrong
flag - Page 155: Croat-Muslim Federation (officially the
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) - The circle of stars is
shown as five-pointed and yellow, instead of six-pointed and
white, while the proportions are correctly illustrated at 3:5 but
given in the text as "2;3".
Christopher Southworth, 19 September 2004
In the issue of the book that I have the stars are correctly
six-pointed, but yellow. Indeed that's wrong. Also the chequy
shield is errorneous since it should be outlined in red, not
yellow. 3:5 is the correct proportion.
Željko Heimer, 19 September 2004
It is very hard to tell, but in my edition (updated 02) they
are five pointed and yellow. Why are they 6 pointed and
white?
I thought that part of the sheild was supposed to represent
Europe/the EU, which would mean five pointed and yellow would be
logical.
David Kendall, 19 September 2004
I have the same Edition as David, and it is extremely
difficult to tell, but even under a powerful glass they still
appear five-pointed as was my original impression. I do
not know why the stars are six-pointed or indeed white, but as
far as I know they (unlike those on the flag of
Bosnia-Herzegovina itself) do not represent the EU or Europe, but
the ten provinces which make up the Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina?
Christopher Southworth, 19 September 2004
Interesting, in my edition (which is not an updated one as far
as I can tell) the stars are indeed 6 pointed and yellow. In this
case too magnification was needed to verify the number of points.
Evidently a case where instead of correcting an earlier mistake
the update adds a second one.
Ned Smith, 20 September 2004
by Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
The construction sheet, in the same units as shown, the size
of the CoA would be 1.65:1.5 (height:width), but as these figures
are not stated in regaultions and would not come nicely on the
image is the numbers are to be whole figure only, I prefer not
to include them..
Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
by Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
I should note another common practice regarding the flags and
CoA of the Federation. In the reports and interviews with various
govrnment oficials on TV one can often observe a table flag,
usually hoisted with at least one other flag (most often either
the B&H triangle flag, or Croat "HRHB" flag). That
table flag is pure white with the federal CoA set in the middle
rotated for vertical hoisting. One should not that this is not a
flag in a strict sence, as there is no such in any regulations,
but it is rather, I guess, a way of displaying the CoA in a
convinient way, also, maybe a way of avoiding to hoist red stripe
("Croat") over green ("Bosniak") and way of
avoiding questions regarding such. In any case - I have never
seen it used in any other way then a table flag, and I do not
think that it is, either.The CoA there is much larger here then
if it would be if the Federation flag would be hoisted
vertically, and the size of the white field is 1:2, probably to
match the other displayed flags. I believe that such usage should
be noted, as it could easily be confuzed and misreported as a
variation of the Federation flag, which it certainly is not.
Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
fbih.gif)
by Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
One should note that the two shields in upper part are not of
the same shape (Bosniak is pointed, Croat is semicircular) and
not bordered the same (Bosniak is bordered yellow, Croat - red).
The stars in the lower part are set in circle, 10 sixpointed
stars (composed of "two trangles" each) and are rotated
so that they are "roatationally symetircal". The
topmost (and bottommost) star is so that two points are pointing
in hoizontal direction (3 and 9 o'clock), which is rather unusual
and just opposite of what one would expect. The shiled is
apparently (I say apparently since this is not stated explicitly
in regaulations) set in a rectangle with ratio 11:10.
Also, apparently, as it could be concluded from the images, it
seems that the width of the CoA is half of the hoist size.
Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
Jos Poels showed me a little United Nations handbook for Dutch
soldiers in former Yugoslavia (Handboek voormalig Joegoslavië,
January 1994) showing a flag used by Croatian Bosnians. It's
horizontal reb-white-blue with on the central strip a shield
looking like a combination of Croatia and Bosnia (without
fleur-de-lys).
Mark Sensen, 8 February 1997
Military Aircraft Insignia of the World [cos98] don't say anything about
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina marking. However, it seems
that the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's planes had the
federation flag as fin flash. See photo at <www.airliners.net>.
Dov Gutterman, 12 June 2004
At <www.insigniamag.com>
there is an article about Bosnian and Croat Federation Air Force.
It show illustrations (one probably based on photo that I report
earlier. The website report that "The Bosnian & Croat
Federation flag is carried on the tail fin with the top edge
parallel to the fin leading edge.
Dov Gutterman, 14 June 2004