Sarajevo Marks 25th Anniversary of Deadly Market Shelling

Relatives of victims and Sarajevo residents on Tuesday laid flowers and read out the names of the 68 people killed in the Markale marketplace massacre in February 1994.

They died when a shell was fired from positions held by the Bosnian Serb Army. More than 140 people were also injured.

Senida Karovic, president of the Union of Civil War Victims of Sarajevo Canton, said the Markale market was a “symbol of remembrance” for all Sarajevo citizens who were killed or injured during the city siege between 1992 and 1995.

“The siege of the city of Sarajevo was the longest one in modern history. It lasted for 1,479 days. More than 50,000 of our fellow citizens were wounded and 11,541 killed, including 1,601 children,” Karovic said.

Hasan Banda said he survived the massacre on February 5, 1994 despite being severely wounded. “I saw legs, heads, body parts,” Banda recalled.

Representatives of the Sarajevo Canton assembly and government also laid flowers, as did Bosnian state presidency member Zeljko Komsic.

Komsic said that the anniversary of the attack must not be forgotten.

“The time passes, but the pain does not get smaller. All of us have our stories about Markale, but those told by the families whose members were killed, wounded or became disabled here are the hardest and most tragic ones,” Komsic said.

The Hague Tribunal convicted the former commanders of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the Bosnian Serb Army, Stanislav Galic and Dragomir Milosevic, of shelling Sarajevo during the siege.

The Galic verdict in November 2006 described the Markale attack as “an example of shelling that deliberately targeted civilians”.