These aren't photos from different countries—it's all Bosnia and Herzegovina. It's just that Serbs prefer to hang the Serbian flag, Croats hang the Croatian one, and only Bosniaks hang the yellow-blue version, and even then not always. Even on official buildings!

I was really surprised by such blatant separatism, but it turns out the whole thing is much more complicated: people were literally forced to accept the current flag.

To understand how this happened, let's rewind to 1995. The war had just ended. The world was worried things might flare up again, so the EU and USA decided to put a... temporary "administrator" in place. They created the position of High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and they appoint the person from outside themselves (still do!). And they gave this position two superpowers:
1) fire ANY official in the country suspected of breaking the law
2) make a decision independently if the authorities can't agree

And this isn't just an empty threat. Over two hundred officials have been removed under this system. They didn't even spare presidents. Though sometimes they missed the mark: a Croatian president was removed in 2005, but later all charges were dropped—though by then it was too late to reinstate him. But he did win the election again in 2015. And a Serbian president apparently got fired purely over political disagreements. Cases like these really do look like blatant abuse of power.

In 1998, the country was choosing its symbols, but the government couldn't agree for a long time. That's when they used the superpower: the High Representative imposed their own design for the coat of arms and flag. So now people hang whichever one they prefer, rather than what they were ordered to.

This concentration of power in one person's hands, combined with vague criteria for when to apply the rules, naturally drew criticism. The US eventually stopped participating in this arrangement, and Europe decided in 2008 to finally abolish the position and even set a final date. But this move triggered a wave of disappointment among Bosnia and Herzegovina's citizens and even more criticism. The local government was reasonably seen as corrupt and unable to function effectively without external oversight. So they left everything as is indefinitely.