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image by Željko Heimer, 6 September 2000
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The Constitutional Court (CC) decided that both the Serb
Republic and the Federation had to adopt new flags (although the
decision is named "partial decision" whatever that
means in Bosnian legal system), however, the deadline for the
implementation of that decision has not yet come.
At the website
of the CC of B&H it is explained:
"Today, on 31 March 2006, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia
and Herzegovina commenced with its 30th Plenary session, on
Vlašic. [...]
In case U 4/04, concerning a request of Mr. Sulejman Tihic, who
was at the time of filing the request a Chair of Presidency of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, for review of constitutionality of
Articles 1 and 2 of the Law on Coat of Arms and Flag of
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Articles 1, 2 and 3 of the
Constitutional Law on Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem of the
Republika Srpska, Articles 2 and 3 of the Law on Use of Flag,
Coat of Arms and Anthem and Articles 1 and 2 of the Family
Patron-Saint's Days and Church Holidays of Republika Srpska, the
Constitutional Court decided to take a partial decision. In
regards to part of the request referring to Articles 1 and 2 of
the Law on Family-Patron's Days and Church Holidays of the
Republika Srpska and having regard to the fact that adoption of
new law is currently in the process, the Constitutional Court
decided to postpone its decision on this issue, as well as on the
issue of flag referred to in Article 1 of the Constitutional Law
on Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem of the Republika Srpska.
In the partial decision adopted today, it was established that
Articles 1 and 2 of the Law on Coat of Arms and Flag of the
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Articles 2 and 3 of the
Constitutional Law on Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem of the
Republika Srpska are not in conformity with Article II.4 of the
Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina in connection with Article
1.1 and 2 (a) and (c) of the International Convention on
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination under Annex I
to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Parliament of the
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and National Assembly of
Republika Srpska are ordered, in accordance with Article 63 para
4 of the Rules of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, to conform these provisions to the Constitution of
Bosnia and Herzegovina within time limit of six months, from the
date of publishing this Decision in Official Gazette of Bosnia
and Herzegovina.
It was established that Article 2 of the Law on Use of Flag, Coat
of Arms and Anthem in the part providing that flag, coat of arms
and anthem of the Republika Srpska „represent statehood of
the Republika Srpska" is not in accordance with Article I.1
and I.2 of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and that
Article 3 of the Law on Use of Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem, in
the part providing that symbols of the Republika Srpska are used
«in accordance with moral norms of Serb people" are not in
accordance with Article II.4 of the Constitution of Bosnia and
Herzegovina in connection with Articles 1.1 and 2 (a) and (c) of
the International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination under Annex I to the Constitution of Bosnia
and Herzegovina so that the Constitutional Court annulled them
respectively. The annulled provisions shall not be in force as of
the following date from the date of publishing this Decision in
«Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina» pursuant to
Article 63, para 3 of the Rules of the Constitutional Court.
[...]
All adopted decisions will be available on the web page of the
Constitutional Court one month following the submission to the
appellants.
Dusan Kalember
Secretary General Constitutional Court of Bosnia and
Herzegovina".
On the same site, there is a new
release article with recounts of a visit of a EU delegation
in May 2006 to which was stated (my translation): "In regard
with the implementation of the partial decision U 4/04
determining that certain articles of [various flag related laws
mentioned above] are not in regard with the Constitution of
B&H and the European convention on human rights, it is noted
that the deadline was not yet established since the decision was
not yet published in the official gazette [and the deadline is
set in the decision to six months after the publication].
Therefore, it is too early to tell of its implementation "
The full text of the partial decision in English is available at
<www.ccbh.ba/eng>
and Bosnian at <www.ccbh.ba/bos>.
Željko Heimer, 21 October 2006
My translation from <www.index.hr>
published 4 hours ago:
"The Constitutional Court of B&H reached a verdict to
abrogate the coat of arms and the flag of the Federation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina and the coat of arms and the anthem of the
Republic of Srpska, writes B92 [a Belgrade news agency].
With this decision enters into force the prohibition on the use
of those symbols and new symbols should be adopted that would
contain symbols of all constitutional peoples.
This verdict was made since non of the two entities did obey a
previous Court decision requiering that within 6 months the
symbols be aligned with the determinations of the B&H
COnstitution, that requires the symbols to represent all three
constitutional peoples.
A request for the prolongation of that dead line by the Republic
of Srpska was rejected, as much as the request to reexamine the
Constitutional Court decision.
In the Federation the abrogation produced almost no reactions,
since they were not considered real symbols by anyone, however,
in Srpska the decision produced bitterness
"I believe that the Court does not understand neither the
time nor the place where it is. There is no Legislation on the
Constitutional Court, so it works by its own rules as it likes,
which is legal nonsense." - stated Igor Radojicic, chairman
of the parliament of Srpska, adding that the decision on symbols
is way too emotional issue to be made in such way.
However, the Constitutional Court decision is irrevocable."
The decision shall be finally worded on a subsequent session of
the Constitutional Court, and the decision shall be then issued
in the official gazette "Službeni glasnik Bosne i
Hercegovine" - the decision shall become valid on the day of
issue in the gezette. Official site of the Constitutional Court
is at <www.ccbh.ba>.
Željko Heimer, 29 January 2007
On <www.tportal.hr>
there is a HINA report on reactions from Srpska on the revoking
of the symbols. Summarized, the RS oes not plan to remove the
symbols any sooner then the decision of the Court is published.
The president of the Parliament of RS announced that on the first
subsequent session a commission shall be determined to prepare
design of the new symbols. He stated taht there is no much time
and the work shall be done under pressure, but that the confuzion
is not necessery - the symbols need not be removed yet, since
they are still valid. The jurists estimate that the
Constitutional Court deliberately postponed the
"verification" of the decision for its subsequent
session, so to, indirectly, give more time to the parliaments of
the two entities to prepare the new symbols. It is estimated that
the decision shall not be published in the official gazette for
two or three months at least. Also, see my news article at <www.hgzd.hr>.
Željko Heimer, 30 January 2007
proposal for new coat of arms
image by Željko Heimer, 5 February 2007
I received from a FAME
visitor an image of "unofficial proposal" for the new
Coat of Arms for the Republic of Srpska in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. It was shown on the TV station BHT on 25th January
2007. I am not sure how this is someting being considered in the
bodies of government of Srpska. It s said that the Coat of Arms
is supposed to be similar to the previous one, but with the
symbols added that would include the other two
"constitutional nations" (i.e. Croats and Bosniaks).
The crown is also to be gone, so the design looks very much like
the Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of
SHS/Yugoslavia (with Slovenian part replaced with
fleur-de-lis).
Željko Heimer, 5 and 6 February 2007
rs07t.gif)
temporary coat of arms
image by Željko Heimer, 16 June 2007
I received info from Adi Mirojevic on the status of the change
of the symbols of the two entities forming Bosnia and
Herzegovina: Republika Srpska (RS) and the Federation of B&H
(FBiH), whose symbols were recently invalidated by the
Constitutional Court (CC) and they have to find some new ones.
The decision of the CC of B&H on the coat of arms and the
flag of FBiH and the coat of arms and the anthem of RS being
inconsistent with the Constitution was issued in the Official
gazette "Službeni glasnik BiH 45/07". This make
these symbols now officially invalid and abandoned.
RS officially adopted an emblem to funcion instead of the coat of
arms until a new solution is adopted. This emblem is described by
Adi so: within a seal form inscribed with the name of RS in
Cyrillic and Latin letters the initials RS in Cyrillic set on a
base of the flag of RS surrounded with a golden oak wreath with
tricolour ribbon, above the royal crown (such as was on the coat
of arms of RS until now) and below a new element - royal crown of
Kotromanic dynasty, originating in the medieval Bosnia history.
The competition for the new coat of arms of RS was issued already
and is already closed - it (the competition) could be seen at
<www.narodnaskupstinars.net>
According to Adi, the Federation is expected to issue its
competition within a month.
Željko Heimer, 16 June 2007
Some time ago I reported on the newly adoped emblem of Srpska
that is to replace the coat of arms in its functions until the
adoption of the new coat of arms. However, I was not able to find
official docuemntation until now - although the official sites of
RS already removed the previous coat of arms and replaced it with
the new emblem quite consistently.
The law on the new embelm is available now with explanations but
not drawing at <www.narodnaskupstinars.net>.
The amendments to the law on coat of arms, flag and anthem are
also available here,
although these are only about the anthem. Once again - the
flag was not changed, remaining the red-blue-white tricolour.
You may want to take a look at a photo of one of the proposed
designs of the new emblem of Srpska, including chequy fields and
Bosniak fleurs-de-lis at <p083.ezboard.com>.
Željko Heimer, 24 June 2007
According to an info I received from a friend, which he
probably read in local newspapers, the competition for the new
symbols of RS resulted in 9 of them being considered as
appropriate for the discussion in the Parliament, to be held in
September. Apparently, the 9 proposals are still held secret.
Željko Heimer, 3 August 2007
In September the parliamentary commission decided on five
proposals for the new coat of arms of Srpska that are supposed to
be discussed in the Parliament and presumably, one of those would
be decided upon. The proposaed designs could be sees at <www.pressonline.co.yu>
and <www.kozarskadubica.net>.
Željko Heimer, 3 December 2007
As it was repored by the FENA news agency and was transmitted
by many media (for example <www.bljesak.info>),
on 15 June 2008 the People's Assembly of the Republic of Srpska
adopted a new Coat of Arms and a new anthem.
The new anthem is titled "Moja Republika" (My Republic,
text and the mp3 of it available at <www.banjalukalive.com>)
by Mladen Matovic from Banja Luka.
If I interpret the description in the news correctly, then the
adopted design is one of the five
finalist designs proposed recently, the lowest one in the
image at <www.nezavisne.com>
(see also article on the final designs e.g. at <www.banjalukalive.com>).
If the names of the authors of the five proposals were given in
the right order, the the designer of this one would be Zdravko
Krulj, a painter from Banja Luka.
In accordance aith the article from Bljesak mentioned above, the
Coat of Arms and the anthem were adopted with 49 votes from the
governing coalition, while the oposition (SDA, Party for BiH, SDP
BiH) was against or sustained (SDS, SRSRS), for various reasons.
The SDA and SDP delegates were prefering the proposal with Coat
of Arms shield divided into three, with the flag in the top field
charged with the Serbian eagle, and with chequy field and green
field with golden fleur-de-lis in the other two. (It seems that
the SDS and SRS delegates were for readoption of previous design,
already declaired unconstitutional.).
The adopted design is (my blazon): Gules a double headed eagle
argent crowned, beaked and armed and with two fleurs de lis in
base or bearing an escutcheon gules a cross argent between four
fire-irons also argent. The shield is crowned with royal crown
or. As supporters two lions rampant gules, armed and gorged with
a fleury crown or, and ensigned with circular shields in dexter
azure a fleury crown or and in gules argent three bends argent,
standing on a compartment of a triplle wattle ornament or.
In accordance to the text on Bljesak - the supporter are
described that both are crowned, the right one with royal crown
and the left one with fleury corwn (although I am not sure if the
right and left here mean heraldically dexter and sinister or the
"usual" left and right), and possibly the crowns around
the necks are gone...
There is possibility that the Bosniak delegates veto the decision
and they announce that, but if that is going to happen it is too
early to tell.
The web site of the
People's Assembly does not have any info on the new symbols
yet, but this may change in a day or two.
The flag remained unchanged, Serbian tricolour adopted already in
1992.
Željko Heimer, 16 July 2008
The official flag of the Republika Srpska is the
red-blue-white flag in horizontal stripes of equal width. Ratio
1:2.
Pascal Vagnat, 20 September 1999
The official flag of RS is plain Serb tricolour The status of
RS is like this - it is one of the two entities fromtin the state
of Bosnia and Herzegovina. RS is unitary state (subdivided in
municipalities - obstine), presidential parlamentary democracy.
Regarding flags, the flag of B&H is used officially, together
with the flag of RS, and according to my observations (which
might be wrong) often together with one of the unofficial
variations (cross, eagle...). Municipalities have (right to)
flags, of which I believe we have see only the flag of Srpsko
Sarajevo and Bileca, and which follow the Serbian vexillologic
practice (square banners of arms).
Željko Heimer, 21 September 1999
Another variation of the
flag of the Republic of Srpska is presented at <www.srpska.com>.
Gvido Petersons, 17 March 2000
The flag is tricolour of red over blue over white. Ratio 1:2.
When hoisted vertical the red stripe should be on observer's left
(as it is usual).
This is the only official national flag of RS. All other
variants reported in vex-literature have no official status,
though indeed they have been reported used in official purposes
more then once. It seems that such variations are tollerated, but
sometimes also hoisted side by side with the pure flag, and with
several variations together.
The source for the image is a document named (translated):
"Original (ethalon) of the coat of arms and the flag of the
Republic of Srpska with graphical standards for use, illustrated
inset" issued by the official gazette and is not dated.
Original title: "Izvornik (etalon) grba i zastave Republike
Srpske sa grafie'kim standardima za primenu, ilustrovani
prilog", Sluzbeni glasnik Republike Srpske. I have to thank
to Pascal Vagnat for this document.
Željko Heimer, 6 September 2000
Znamierowsky 99 [zna99] show wrong
flag - Page 155: Serbian Republic - The unofficial flag
with its traditional Serbian arms is shown and described, rather
than the plain tricolour (it is, however, possible that official
information on this was not available prior to publication), and
the flag is illustrated at 3:5 whereas the correct proportions of
1:2 are given in the text.
Christopher Southworth, 19 September 2004
The pure undefacted serb tricolour was adopted in 1992, and
was not changed since. Ratio 1:2. The defaced flag is nothing but
fancy (though many such fancyful flags were used unofficially).
Regarding the exact date - unfortunately the indeed excelent
"etalon" issued in the official gazette in 1992 do not
bear any date except in the title of the gazette it stands that
it is a number that and that of 1992. I believe that the decision
(law or whatever) was made earlier, and the etalon was published
possibly some time afterwards, and he legislator felt that the
exact date was unnecesserily. In any case, January 1992 surely
seems as a reasonable date (quite possible it may be that itis
the date of the adoption of the Constitution of RS).
Željko Heimer, 19 September 2004
Znamierowsky gives 9 January 1992, and William Crampton
"January 1992" (although William also shows the cross
with its four C's).
Unfortunately I have the relevant text of the Constitution but no
date (only the year 1992). This reads:
"Article 8: The Republic shall have the flag, the coat
of arms and the anthem. The flag, the coat of arms and the
wording of the national anthem shall be determined by
constitutional law".
Christopher Southworth, 19 September 2004
The decision of the Constitutional court (see: New
Flag for the Republic of Srpska ?) have some references to
the legislation on the entity flag: Ustavni zakon o zastavi, grbu
i himni Republike Srpske («Službeni glasnik Republike
Srpske» br. 19/92). Zakon o upotrebi zastave, grba i
himne («Službeni glasnik Republike Srpske» br. 4/93),.
Relevant parts are quoted in the decision (case no. U 4/04 on
<www.ccbh.ba>).
"98. The Constitutional Law on the Flag, Coat of Arms and
Anthem of Republika Srpska (Official Gazette of the Republika
Srpska No. 19/92).
Article 2 The coat of arms of the Republika Srpska is the coat of
arms of Nemanjici represented by a double white eagle with a
crown over its head. A red shield with a cross and four white
tinder-box steels between the arms of the cross is on the eagle's
chest.
Article 3 The anthem of the Republika Srpska shall be Bože
Pravde.
99. The Law on Use of the Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem of the
Republika Srpska (Official Gazette of the Republika Srpska No.
4/93)
Article 2 The flag, the coat of arms and the anthem of the
Republika Srpska shall represent the statehood of the Republika
Srpska.
Article 3 The flag, coat of arms and anthem of the Republika
Srpska shall be used in accordance with this law, public order,
moral norms of the Serb people and in the manner which shall not
disturb respect and dignity of the Republika Srpska.
Željko Heimer, 30 January 2007
![[Flag of Bosnian Serbs]](../images/b/ba_serbs.gif)
image by Željko Heimer
The flag with the Serbian (St. Sava) cross (by the way,
the cross has nothing to do with St. Sava, it was so named after
the saint patron of Serbia by heraldrists and vexillologists, for
convenience in similarity with British crosses) is unofficial,
but in early 1990's very often used. The official flag is the
simple tricolour.
Željko Heimer, 27 November 1995
The flag with "St. Sava cross" *) is often used, but
unofficially. However, according to some sources the flag with
cross is officially adopted by the Serb Orthodox Church as the
flag representing the Church.
*) note that this name is fabrication of the mailing list (or vex
community), although usefull, it is rarely called so by Serbs.
Željko Heimer, 24 September 1999
Shouldn't we better replace this with "Serbian
cross" (or perhaps even "Byzantine cross") before
we create the myth of a "St. Sava's cross"?
Santiago Dotor, 27 September 1999
I think that the most common term that is used does not even
mention cross - the Serbs call it "ocila" (c is read as
"ts"), which is term that describe the four curious
shapes (cyrillic S's). Another word in Serbian for the same thing
is "ognjila", but I do not think that this is ever used
for those devices in this sence. "Ocilo" is called in
english a fire- iron, a cup or plate used for holding the
"live coal" in religious service (or most usually under
icons), providing the fragnan smoke. Similar device is also known
in "western" heraldry, then most usualy with opening
above, often with fire bursting from it.
The devices and cross originate from Byzantine
"heraldry", where this was interpreted as four B's, So,
it would be in Serb "ocila" or "krst s
ocilima" (cross with fire-rons). Regarding the use of
"Serbian cross" (or "Serb cross") would do.
Željko Heimer, 28 September 1999
I have read something about the flag with the Serbian cross of
the Republika Srpska. According to it the four cyrillic
"S" are taken from the motto "Solamente los
Serbios Salvaran Serbia" (only the Serbian people will save
Serbia). I obtain this information from the italian magazine
"Rivista Militare" (issue 5/2001).
Santiago Tazon, 27 October 2001
"Samo Sloga Srbe Spasava (Only Unity can save the
Serbs)" is the correct interpretation of the four Cyrillic
S's. The C's more usually face outwards, that is, the C's on the
left-hand side are mirror-image, but I have seen them face inward
as well on occasion.
John C. Evosevic, 27 October 2001
I don`t think that four cyrillic "S" (looks like
latin C) are taken from the motto. More probably that different
patriotic mottos were taken from ancient CoA with four
"S". I know about two variants of motto:
Samo sloga Srbe Spasava (Only the Unity can save the Serbia), and
Svety Sava Srpska Slava (St.Sava - the glory of Serbia)
(note: I can make mistakes in latinized serbian texts because I
saw it in cyrillic alphabet only)
Victor Lomantsov, 27 October 2001
This is the most often quoted motto for this interpretation,
but the other one quoted by Victor (correctly latinized would be
"Sveti Sava - Srpska slava", note the capitalization)
is also sometimes find - in what might be called more
"clerical" sources.
In any case, both mottoes, and some other variations are rather
new, from 18th centruy (or some few hundered years earlier,
occasionally, in some arorial collections, I don't have any
reference by hand), while the cross with S's stems from much
earlier time of Bizantine Empire, where the elements surrounding
the cross were interpreted as B's (greek letter 'beta') reffering
to a motto if not similar in interpretation ("Basileus
Basileon Basileuon Basileusin" - "King of
kings, ruling over kings", the motto of Paleologus dinasty),
then certainly similar in idea of providing a motto to initials.
Heraldically speaking, the charges are nither B's nor S's, but
firestalks, fireirons - things that are hanged uner the orthodox
icons in which fragnant materials are incinerated.
Source: [mrd87]
Željko Heimer, 28 October 2001
This is indeed the most frequent interpretation. However, as
Victor Lomantsov and Željko Heimer already said, what
actually happens is that several mottoes were created 'post
facto' from the cross, not the other way round.
The four firesteel-like elements surrounding a cross already
appeared in the 14th century flag of the Byzantine
Paleologues dinasty.
Santiago Dotor, 29 October 2001
Ron Lahav reported this flag as appear at Air Srpska
wensite. This is not the company flag but an icon for the
Serbian version of this website. The RS flag is an undefaced Serb
blue-red-white tricolor. The "cross of St. Sava" flag
has - or had, as of the early 90's, a kind of informal status as
the flag of the Serb nation, irrespective of geopolitical
boundaries. This includes the Serbs of Macedonia, the Bosnian RS,
presumably what's left of the Serb minorities of Croatia and
Kosovo and in Serbia and Montenegro, of course. That flag has not
territorial meaning, it was/is used as a civil flag sometimes
(weddings, sport matches etc), but never been official.
Eugene Ipavec and Ivan Sarajcic, 25 November
2005
Saint Sabba was saint from 5th. century. He is the Saint of
the East and West Church. Saint Sabba is officially patron of
Bosnia and Herzegovina from the time of Stipan Herceg. Stipan did
not probably proclime himself for herceg. He did not have any
reason for that, because he already was Grand Duke of Bosnia. It
would be mean that he degraded himself. He successed his uncle
Sandalj (A.D.1435) who had a title herceg. Addition of title,
Saint Abbas or Sabba (same Latin and Greek meaning) speaks in
that regard. It could be only awarded him from Rome German King
Frederic III in accordance with the Pope. Relations of Herceg and
German court were very intensive. One of Bavarian princess was
one of his wife.
Ivan Tonich Herceg, 7 January 2007
See also: Serbian Orthodox Church
According to the chart: "Flags of Aspirant Peoples"
, "Srpska Bosna Hercegovina (Serbian state of
Bosnia-Herzegovina) - War flag" is a Serbian tricolor,
charged with a white eagle.
This design is listed under number 40 at the chart "Flags of
Aspirant Peoples" [eba94].
Ivan Sache, 16 September 1999
serb.gif)
image by Željko Heimer, 6 September 2000
Coat of arms of RS - Gules, a Two-headed Eagle Argent
displayed, langued, beaked and membered Or, topped with a Crown
of the same bearing an escutcheon Gules, between a Cross Argent
four Fire Irons of the same adorsed (Serbia modern).
This Coat of Arms is virtually the same as the lesser Coat of
Arms of pre-WWI kingdom of Serbia. A construction detail, the
Coat of Arms apears to be in ratio 5:7, but is divided for
construction purposes in 8x9 sectors
Željko Heimer, 6 September 2000
When it comes to Srpska, it is using a royal crown in spite of
the fact that it is not a monarchy.
Elias Granqvist, 16 September 2000
The anwser would be, I guess, that RS adopted the coat of arms
of the Kingdom of Serbia of before the first World War. Actually,
there were, I believe several consequtive versions of Serbian
Coat of Arms before 1914, some including fleurs-de-lis, and I am
not sure if it was the latest version that was (re)adopted by RS.
The version with f-d-l's was not suitable, I guess as today those
have other conotations (Bosniaks).
In any case, the crown in the Coat of Arms is anachronic, but it
may be, and probably is, explained as a symbol of souvereignity,
just as are crowns in some other European republics. This crown,
even in being royal, is now here to represent the sovereignity
weather in reference to previous rolayity or not.
Željko Heimer, 17 September 2000
Last night I was watching the news on TV when they carried an
article on a rally of Bosnian Serbs in Sarajevo, and as you would
expect it was a veritable vex-fest with much flag-waving going
on.
However, I noticed that a number of the usual Serb tricolours
were adorned with an emblem I have not seen discussed here. It
was a small equi-dimensional cross in the centre extending
slightly more than the width of the central stripe, and in each
angle was a circle.
C. Veale, 30 November 1995
The other day on the news I saw some suburban Sarajevo Serbs
protesting that a unified Sarajevo will be granted to the
Muslim-Croat federation under the Dayton peace accords.
They were waving what I assumed to be a Serb flag: white stripe
on top, blue in the middle, red on the bottom. There was no arms
on the flag, as we have previously seen. How is this flag
different from the Russian Federation?
Josh Fruhlinger, 26 November 1995
In my humble opinion, what you saw was the red blue white flag
turned upside down. From my experience, some people in
ex-Yugoslavia don't give much attention to how the flags are
flown.
The cross and circles device must be the cross and 4 C's (fire
stalkers). More on this see on Republic of
Serb Krajina and Serbia pages.
Željko Heimer, 1 December 1995
At <www.banjalukalive.com>,
you can see an unknown (for me) variant of the flag of
Republika Srpska. The text has nothing with the flag. I first
thaught it might be the flag of Republika Srpska Krajina, cause
they used coat of arms with blue background, but I'm not sure.
Anyone knows anything?
Valentin Poposki, 23 February 2008
I read that at first three serb republics existed in Bosnia :
The three republics where merged after 12 September 1993 after
the Banja Luka agreement. Is this correct?
Jaume Ollé, 13 November 1996
I am not sure any more of the exact names of these
'Republics'. In fact, I think they were not proclaimed as
republics but as authonomous regions, or something like that. I
am especially suspicious of the first name. In any case, I don't
think they used any official flags as states and even if they
did, they would probably have the same definition of the state
flag as did the Republic of Serbian Krajina
in Croatia that defined it's flag to be a tricolour of red over
blue over white, and nothing else.
All the designs you mention where in use, but they where not
territorially closed and where used as unofficial and official
(with that I mean in official purposes like parlamentary
sessions) flags in all areas where Serbs lived - Krajina, Western
and Eastern Slavonia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia.
Željko Heimer, 16 November 1966
I received info on the communities in the Republic of Srpska
in B&H. This is thanks to a visitor to my web site who goes
by as Goran from Srpsko Sarajevo.
The RS is divided currently into 62 communities. There are also
two cities: Banja Luka which coincides
teritorially with the community of Banja Luka, and Srpsko Sarajevo that encompases
seven communities: Pale, Rogatica, Sokolac, Srpska Ilidza, Srpski
Stari Grad, Srpsko Novo Sarajevo and Trnovo. (Therefore, writes
Goran, e.g. that the building of the community of Srpsko Novo
Sarajevo since recently flyes four flags - B&H, RS, Srpsko
Sarajevo and Srpsko Novo Sarajevo. I hope to get some more info
on the last one soon.)
The government of the RS lists the communities at <www.vladars.net>.
I prvide the list here, adding the "ASCII" version of
the name where diacritics are used, and I add some additional
comments:
As you can see, some of the communities are renamed for
"ideological" reasons, tyipically replacing the
attribute Bosanski with Srpski (and this is typically with those
cities that are on rivers, where on the other bank is Croatian
city of the same name attributed Hrvatski or Slavonski). With the
division of the country with Dayton agreement, the so called
Inter-Entity Boundary line did not match the of former
communities' boundaries, so parts of some communities were left
"on the other side" - new communities are formed by the
"leftovers" that are much smaller then the
"normal" communities and shall surely in future be
disbanded. Anyway, these are idneicated as "formerly part
of" community from the Federation.
Anyway, I hope we shall get some flag info on at least some of
those. Many of them do have Coat of Arms, that may be found
around the Web, ut they are typically very complicated. A number
of the communities got themselves the Coat of Arms of type
promoted by the Serb Heraldic Society, the flags of which are
square banners of arms (or similar).
Željko Heimer, 5 January 2003
On 26 March 2004, the Consitutional Court of Bosnia and
Herzegovina ordered the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska
to supress the prefix Srpski from the name of 13 communities.
Marco Tadic, President of the Court, said to the media:
"Since the Constitution of the state of Bosnia and
Herzegovina acknowledges the equal rights of all ethnical groups,
the Court has estimated that those names were discriminatory
againts the non-Serbian people." The National Assembly must
adopt new names or restore the former names of the communities
within three months. The initiative for the modification of the
names of the 13 communities was launched by Sejfudin Tokic,
former President of the Parliament of the Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina. Tokic found that the return rate [of non-Serbian
people] to those communities was extremely low.
The 13 municipalities whose name must be changed are:
Srpsko Sarajevo
Srpska Derventa
Srpski Mostar
Srpski Sanski Most
Srpsko Gorazde
Srbinje
Srpski Kljuc
Srpska Kostajnica
Srpski Brod
Srpska Ilidza
Srpsko Novo Sarajevo
Srpski Star Grad
Srpsko Orasje
Source: Courrier des Balkans <www.balkans.eu.org>
Ivan Sache, 17 April 2004
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