Markale As Symbol of Sarajevans’ Defiance

High Representative Valentin Inzko, representatives of cantonal authorities, surviving family members, victims associations, and ordinary Sarajevans commemorated the 68 civilians who were killed at the Markale market on February 5, 1994.

On the day of the massacre, Hasan Kunic went to the market to buy flour with his wife. He carried the flour home, while his wife stayed behind to do more shopping. When the market was attacked, she was killed by falling mortar.

“To lose someone you had children with, when someone comes and kills her – it is inhumane,” Kunic said, adding that he also lost a son during the war and that “there is no justice.”

Mubera Brkanic also lost her husband Faruk to the attack. He went to the Markale market and had met a neighbor when the mortar hit.

“He died on the spot, and the neighbor was wounded. It was destiny,” said Brkanic, who came to the commemoration with her grandson.

She also said that her cousin, who was only 15 years old at the time, was killed at the second Markale market massacre in August 1995.

During the first attack on the Markale market, mortar was fired from a position in the hills above the city held by Bosnian Serb forces. 68 people were killed and 144 more were wounded. The second attack in August 1995 left 43 people dead.

According to the Union of Civilian Victims of War in Sarajevo, during the 1425 day long siege of Sarajevo, the city was hit by an average of 329 mortars a day. The siege resulted in the deaths of 11,541 civilians, including 1601 children. At least 50,000 people were wounded as a result of the siege.

“Markale market is a symbol of defiance and fight, and today it is a symbol of remembrance for all the people of Sarajevo killed during the aggression and siege,” said Senida Karovic, head of the Union of Civilian Victims of the War in the canton of Sarajevo.

Muamer Bandic, the canton’s refugees minister, said that there are debates and long court proceedings currently underway, which will prove that Bosnian citizens were the “target of the aggressors, whose aim was [their] extermination and the destruction of [their] dignity.”

Stanislav Galic, a former commander of Bosnian Serb forces, was sentenced to life in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for terrorizing the citizens of Sarajevo – including his role in the attack on the Markale market.

Former Bosnian Serb political and military leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are both currently facing trial at the ICTY. The charges against them also include the Markale market massacre.