by Zeljko Heimer, 10 June 2004
Last modified: 2004-11-13 by dov gutterman
Keywords: bosnia and herzegovina | federation of bosnia and herzegovina | posavski | posavina |
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by Zeljko Heimer, 10 June 2004
See also:
Municipalities:
On a site at <www.posavina.de>
you can see a flag captioned "new flag of Posavski
canton" that obviously represent a flag of the Canton 2 ,
i.e. "Bosanskoposavski kanton".
The symbolic is quite obvious:
- Croats - chequy field, red stripe
- Bosniaks - f-d-ls in a bend (sinistre here) and green stripe
- Sava river - blue and white wavy - Posavina meaning
"region by Sava river", "posavski" being
adjective form, "Bosanska Posavina" is of course,
"region by Sava in Bosnia" - since Sava as any other
iver have two banks, the other one being in Croatian region of
Slavonia (cf. Brodsko-posavska zupanija).
However, I believe that the flag represented here could not at
all be called "new". I believe that it goes about the
flag adopted, maybe not so long ago, but certainly before the
time when OHR "dismissed" all of the cantonal flags
except that of Sarajevo canton (did we found that claim to be
true anyway?) for they being too much nationalistic and
offensive.
Zeljko Heimer, 2 May 2000
The image from "Posavski magazin" is captioned as
new cantonal flag. Until now no other information confirm it. The
coat of arms contains Croatian chequy field for the Croat
majority of the Canton. It also contains a slanted bar with two
fleurs-de-lis for the Bosniak people, and for the connection with
the medieval Bosnia. In base is represented river Sava, the main
resource of the area and the name-sake of the Canton (Posavina
means region around Sava river). The flag is red over white over
green tircolour with unequal stripes. The red is for Croats,
green for Bosniaks and white for peace among them.
The canton is situated in northern Bosnian Posavina consisting of
two territoriall disconnected pockets around towns of Odzak and
Orasje, where Croats and Bosniaks managed to fight of the Serb
agression.
Zeljko Heimer, 27 September 2000
I reported on the flag of the Posavina Canton (Canton nr. 2,
Posavska županija, Posavski kanton) back in May 2000 just
around the time when the flag was adopted, based on a report from
a web site and claim of the webmaster copying the info from a
journal. However, since then I never managed to get any aditional
independent info on this flag, so I always kept some reservation
to it. However, since nobody objected for almost four years, it
seemed more and more that the info is correct. Finally, Jos Poels
managed to obtain a copy of the official gazette that he
forwarded to me as well.
It seems that the name used at first for the canton
'Bosanskoposavski' is shortened in official use to 'Posavski'
only.
The official gazette contains the amendments to the constitution
of the Canton: Amandman na Ustav Županije Posavske,
12.04.2000, Narodne novine Županije Posavske, br. 3/2000,
Orašje, 12. travnja 2004.
It is interesting to note that the header of the gazette carries
the Coat of Arms of the Croatian
"Herzeg-Bosnia" (HRHB). As I'll explain further I
believe that the Canton used the HRHB flag since 1996 (the
formation of the Canton) until 2000 (this amendments).
The first part of the text is the decree promulgating the
Amendments to the Constitution of the Posavina Canton. The second
is the text of the Amendments itself, that I provide translation
in full:
2000, April 12
Amendments to the Constitution
Based on the Article 75 line 3 of the Constitution of the Posavina Canton (Narodne novine Zupanije Posavske 1/96) the Assembly of the Posavina Canton, in its session of 12 April 2000, (hereby) adopts
Amendments to the Constitution of the
Posavina Canton
Article 1: Article 8 of the Constitution of the Posavina Canton is (hereby) changed and now reads:
“The coat of arms of the Posavina Canton is in the shape of a stylised shield bordered with a golden line, (it is) divided into three fields of different sizes with two parallel, slanted golden lines set from lower left to upper right side of the field. The upper part of the field is divided into red and white squares, so that the first square, in left upper corner, is red. The middle field is white with two golden fleurs-de-lis set equidistantly. The lower field is blue with four symmetrically set wavy white lines.”
Article 2: Article 9 of the Constitution of the Posavina Canton is (hereby) changed and now reads:
“The flag of the Posavina Canton is composed of three colours: red, white and green, with the coat of arms of the Posavina Canton in the middle. The ratio of the width to length is 1:2. The colours of the flag are set horizontally, in this order from the top: red, white and green. The red and the white colour each occupy 42 percent of the field, with the green occupying (the remaining) 16 percent of the flag. The coat of arms of the Posavina Canton is set in the middle of the flag. The central point of the coat of arms matches the point in which the diagonals of the flag intersect.”
Article 3: These Amendments will become valid upon
being published in the “Narodne novine Zupanije
Posavske”.
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Posavina Canton Assembly
Nr. 01-02-17/2000
Domaljevac, 12 April 2000
Chairman
Vitomir Coskovic, m.p.
(Notes: Published in Narodne Novine Županije posavske, vol. 5, nr. 3, 12 April 2000. This translation from Croatian into English by Croatian vexillologist Zeljko Heimer, edited by Chris Southworth)
The verso page contains pictures of the Coat of Arms and the
flag. It may be noted, however, that the Coat of Arms in the flag
picture there is not set in the middle of the flag, but it is
off-set somewhat towards the top (though it is not in the midle
of the red and white stirpes together, either). Also, the
description ("blazon") of the Coat of Arms is not
heraldical, especially regarding the left-right issue, nor it is
overprecise (one would have trouble drawing the wavy lines in
diagonal if he would only follow the "blazon").
It would be very interesting to find out what the original
articles 8 and 9 of the 1996 Constitution of the Canton read.
They would presumably include the description of the Coat of Arms
and the flag used as cantonal symbols from 1996 until 2000. I
strongly suspect that these were in fact the Coat of Arms and the
flag of HRHB. This is further evidenced by the Coat of Arms in
the header of the gazette that is indeed the Coat of Arms of
HRHB. (See Previous Symbols)
Zeljko Heimer, 10 June 2004
02.gif)
by Zeljko Heimer, 10 June 2004
by Zeljko Heimer, 27 September 2000
08.gif)
Coat of Arms
by Zeljko Heimer, 27 September 2000
In the mean time Jos managed to get answers about
the previous flag legsilation that are just as I supposed but I
had no confirmation. As you shall see the Canton used the HRHB
flag as its own since the establishemnt of the canton until April
2000 (just as some other mostly Croat populated cantons, some of
which still do so).
Here is my translation of the text of the relevant contitutional
articles:
10 April 1996
The Constitution of the Posavina Canton
I. Canton Foundations
Article 8: The coat of arms of the [Posavina]
Canton is the historical Croatian coat of arms in the shape of a
stylised shield divided horizontally and vertically into
twenty-five red and white fields/squares, so that the first field
in the upper left corner of the stylised shield is a red one.
Above the stylised shield it is set a triple wattle horisontally
atop the shield above the three central fields. The ratio of the
triple wattle and the height of a square field is 1:1, and ratio
of the length of the triple wattle and the length of the square
field is 3:1.
Article 9: The flag of the Canton consists of
three colours: red, white and blue, with the coat of arms of the
Canton in the middle. The ratio of the width and the length of
the flag is 1:2. The colours of the flag are arranged
horizontally, ordered so from the top: red, white and blue. Each
of the colours takes one third of the width of the flag. The coat
of arms of the Canton is set in the middle of the flag, and the
lower end of he coat of arms (as high as one square field) enters
into the blue field of teh flag. The central point of the coat of
arms matches the point into which the diagonals of the flag
intersect.
Published in the official gazette of the Posavina Canton (Narodne
novine Zupanije posavske) vol. 1, nr. 1, 10 April 1996.
Zeljko Heimer, 26 July 2004