Sarajevo Commemorates Deadly Market Attack

Relatives of the dead, survivors and well-wishers came to lay flowers on Friday at the site where 68 people were killed and another 144 wounded when a shell hit the crowded open market in Sarajevo on February 5, 1994.

One survivor, Esad Pozderac, told BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina’s TV Justice programme before the commemoration how he managed to escape the impact of the blast, but his sister was killed.

“When I looked around, everyone else was dead. Blood was pouring from above… There were people without arms and legs,” Pozderac said.

“I was afraid a new grenade might fall, but I still went up to my sister to see if she was OK. When I got to her, I saw she was dead,” he added.

Another survivor, Sead Pesto, said he went to the market on February 5 in order to trade cigarettes for food.

“The market was full of people. They came searching for food. The only thing I can remember is a horrible whiz, the one produced by a falling grenade. It was really awful, because everything turned into a bloody cloud all of a sudden. Many people were on the ground, moaning, crying,” Pesto told BIRN.

He recalled trying to lift an injured man up, but the victim’s torso came away in his hands.

“He was cut in two halves. It was really dreadful,” he said.

Amela Dautbegovic, the Minister of Labour, Social Policy, Displaced Persons and Refugees of the Sarajevo Canton, said at the commemoration that the crime must never be forgotten.

“We have gathered here for our citizens and our children, because we have not forgotten and we must not forget the monstrous crimes against Sarajevo citizens, who were killed every day while trying to survive, while queuing for water and bread, attending funerals, playing, sledding and attending school classes,” Dautbegovic said.

Only one person has so far been convicted of the killings.

Stanislav Galic, the commander of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Sarajevsko-Romanijski Corps, was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2006 for wartime crimes in Sarajevo, including the shelling of the Markale market.

The verdict said that the attacks represented “an example of shelling intentionally targeting civilians”.

Markale was also shelled on August 28, 1995; 43 people died and 75 were wounded in the attack.

Former Bosnian Serb political and military leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are currently on trial at the Hague Tribunal for shelling Sarajevo, amongst other alleged crimes.

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