Last modified: 2017-04-16 by ivan sache
Keywords: prozor-rama | rama |
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In the 1990s, the municipality of Prozor (Bosnian, "window") was divided into two parts - Bosniaqk and Croat - but it was a single municipality before the war. The Croat part is made of the town of Prozor and some burned Bosniak villages around, and it is renamed into Rama. Rama is an old name for the area, not for the town, since it did not exist as a town or city before the Turks. The other, northern part of the municipality of Prozor is controlled by legal Bosnian authorities, under the name of Prozor. At this moment, there is a wide discussion on Croat's proposal of making Croat municipalities in territories inhabited mainly by Bosniaks. My guess is that the municipality of Prozor will be divided into two parts - Rama and Prozor, both as municipalities, or there will be a less painful solution, a single municipality, but two names (Prozor/Rama), where Rama would be a "pure" Croatian name and Prozor would be a "pure" Bosniak name for the municipality.
Velid-aga Jerlagić, 21 June 1998
Flag of Rama, 1990s - Image by Željko Heimer, 21 June 1998
The flag of Rama was shown in 1998 in front of the Mimara Museum, Zagreb.
The flag was brought in 1993 in Pozor by the Croat occupation authorities, which renamed the municipality Rama. It is illegal according to the Dayton Peace Accords since Rama was not recognized as a separate entity; moreover, the coat of arms represents only Croats and Christianty, while there are 41 % Bosniaks in the municipality.
Veldi-aga Jerlagić, 21 June 1998
The flag of Rama is dark blue with a shield in the middle, "Tierced, 1. Azure, the Rama Cross proper, 2. Croatian checky gules and argent, 3. Gules, an arm with a scimitar proper"
. The Rama Cross is a stone cross of characteristic shape, erected on a mountain top in the region, and through the whole 1990s used as the symbol of the Croat presence there. The arm holding a scimitar represents the medieval arms of Bosnia. In medieval manuscripts this coat of arms was often captioned "Rama"; the term designated more or less the entire modern Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Željko Heimer, 21 June 1998