Bosnia’s Ambassador to the Czech Republic will have to explain why she lowered the flag on the embassy building in Prague after the death of a Bosnian writer, the country’s foreign affairs minister said, adding that most likely ambassador Martina Mlinarevic was not familiar with the rules.

Mlinarevic lowered the flag on half-mast on Thursday and tweeted a photo of it, saying that the most talented writer of Bosnia’s younger generation has died. Mlinarevic, herself a writer, was referring to her former colleague, 48-years-old Bekim Sejranovic, who died after a short disease.

“It seems that Mlinarevic did it on her own,” Foreign Affairs Minister Bisera Turkovic told the SRNA news agency.

“Today, the flag was put back up because there is no reason for it to be at half-mast,” Turkovic said, adding that Mlinarevic will have to explain in written form why she did it.

Turkovic called the move “unacceptable” as then “each of us could ask the institution he works at to lower the flag to half-mast if our parents or someone else dies.”

The minister added that Mlinarevic was most likely not familiar with the rules.

“I am completely familiar with the rules of lowering the flag to half-mast, but my act was humane and patriotic towards one of the best Bosnian writers who was a favourite in the entire region and beyond,” Mlinarevic told Radiosarajevo.ba.

She said that she has not yet received a request to explain why she did it in written form and that she would comment on everything after receiving it.

Mlinarevic quoted the news article, which said that Bosnia's Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) was pressing the foreign minister to discipline her.

The Ambassador tweeted something similar.

“There are some structures whose only job last year, the only task, day and night, has been my name and surname,” Mlinarevic tweeted.