DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR KILLED AND WOUNDED CITIZENS DURING THE AGGRESSION Years pass, wounds reopen

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - With a joint commemorative session of the Sarajevo Canton Assembly, the Sarajevo City Council, and municipal councils from the KS area, and laying flowers at the site of the tragedy, this year, February 5th – the Day of Remembrance for all citizens killed and wounded during the aggression in the period 1992-1995, and the 29th sad anniversary of the tragedy of 68 of our fellow citizens at the Markale market, were marked in a dignified manner.

The organizers of the commemoration this year were again the Sarajevo Canton Assembly, the Sarajevo City Council, and the municipal councils from the KS area. The session began with the playing of the national anthem of Bosnia and Herzegovina, reciting the Fatiha, and a minute of silence in honor of the victims.

The commemorative session was opened with a short speech by the Deputy Speaker of the KS Assembly, Vibor Handžić, who reminded those present that on this day, 29 years ago, a horrific crime was committed at the Markale market.

“At that time, 68 of our fellow citizens were killed, and 142 were wounded. The greatest massacre of Sarajevo citizens in the past aggression was chosen as a symbol, and we mark it as the Day of Remembrance for all innocent citizens of Sarajevo killed during the siege of Sarajevo. February 5, 1994, was almost every day during the 1992-1995 siege, as more than 12,000 citizens of Sarajevo were killed, including 1,601 children,” stated Deputy Speaker Handžić.

After that, he announced a special address by Professor Zuhdija Zukanović, Dean of the Faculty of Islamic Sciences.

“Years pass since the murder of our loved ones, and the emptiness in our lives and the wound in our souls due to parting with them have not yet been filled or healed! And not only do they not heal, but they very often reopen and then hurt more strongly and painfully. It is enough to see the place where they were killed, to see one of their friends, to remember their voice, laughter, their usual words and phrases, it is enough to see ourselves in the mirror how much we have grayed and aged because of their premature departure, for the wound to reopen, and tears to flow,” Dean Zukanović began his address emotionally.

After that, he recalled the time when they were attacked with shells and sniper bullets from every side and every elevation, and when people died at every moment, in every place, from shrapnel and bullets, but also from the pain and realization that they were left to themselves, when they were few, unarmed, poorly organized, but even so, they were accused by some of having destroyed our common state together with others.

“It was difficult to be optimistic in those times! The Bosnian spirit, for who knows what time, was awakened, through children and the elderly, through young men and women, through men and women, less and more educated, through those from the outskirts of the city, from stairwells and markets, who rose up to defend the city, to defend Bosnia and Herzegovina, fully aware that if the city fell, Bosnia would fall too, the cradle of centuries-old diversity and common life would disappear, the dream of a land at the crossroads of worlds, which connects them like a bridge and does not allow them to separate, would be shattered, and the centuries-old tradition of people of different nations, religions, worldviews, and identities living together would cease! There weren't many of us, but we were united, everyone who stayed in the city was close to us. We didn't pay attention at all to who they were or how they differed from us, we emphasized what we had in common. Only the division between those who were destroying and us who were defending Bosnia was known,” Dean Zukanović evoked memories of this historically special period for our city and the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He reminded that information about where to shoot, where to find any food, firewood or branches to start a fire, how to get water, was vitally important to all of us, while we truly loved those who conveyed it to us.

“We were never so sincere as during the shelling when we gathered in stairwells, shelters, garages, under stairs, opening our souls and talking about the most intimate experiences and events, knowing that we were sharing them with those close to us, even though we had perhaps only seen them a few times before. We learned about boundless human generosity then. We were happy in those times that we could help others, we were extremely selfless, we gave our food to others, even though we knew that tomorrow we ourselves would have nothing to eat, we ran out to save the wounded, aware that we might not return either, and we did not regret it.

We had nothing, and we didn't need anything, and in those rare moments when it wasn't shooting – we felt an unusual calm, like never before or since,” he described in detail the emotional picture of each of us who survived the hardest period in BiH's history.

He emphasized that we all felt the greatness of simplicity together.

“And we succeeded! The defenders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite the strength of all those who attacked and dismantled it, defended their homeland! Bosnia, the heart-shaped land in the hilly Balkans! It had been a target of great powers before, but none had ever managed to rule it completely. It remained its own, peculiar, defiant, and proud, a lasting inspiration for future generations! In it, the past was always spoken of with pride, and the future with hope. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, not only its natural beauty, rich, multi-layered glorious history and tradition, but above all the indomitable and unbreakable spirit of its sons and daughters inspire admiration,” Dean Zukanović concluded this part of his address.

He emphasized that, unfortunately, as time passes, these values are increasingly lost and disappearing, and that what has been preserved of them is increasingly slipping from our hands.

He wondered if so many thousands of killed people died for Bosnia to be empty today, for young people to leave it with the intention of never returning, for us to hand it over with our unseriousness and irresponsibility to those who will completely destroy it?!

“Since I am addressing the most responsible individuals in the Canton, the City, and the municipalities, people who direct the lives of the citizens of the capital of our homeland, from which it is expected to always be the vanguard in all positive trends and activities, allow me to draw attention at this moment to the extreme necessity of working to stop the negative trends that are increasingly weakening Bosnian society and threaten to completely collapse it sooner or later, and to gradually direct them in a positive direction,” said Dean Zukanović.

In this regard, among other things, he emphasized that it is high time to gather all relevant factors who care about strengthening Bosnia and Herzegovina: representatives of political parties, religious communities, scientific, educational, and cultural institutions, businessmen, youth organizations, and media houses, in order to reach a consensus on the optimal functioning of the state in the interest of all well-meaning people.

“Every attempt to build a state here without dialogue and respect for the opinions of others has ended fatally. We are particularly aware of this. We must be aware that it is possible to build a better life here in Bosnia and Herzegovina, through consensus on its internal functional structure and organization, respecting human rights and achieving equality for all its citizens throughout the territory, by constantly raising the quality of education, by more closely linking scientific research with the economy, and by stronger industrialization of our country that will include all our potentials. We expect the young generations, proud young men and women, to build a new Bosnia and Herzegovina, not only in terms of formally fulfilling the political, economic, legal, economic, military, health, etc. standards of a modern functional state, but on the multi-layered foundations of the civilizational values of a millennial state that will give it strength, recognizability, and enable constant development and progress,” said Dean Zukanović.

He added that every generation has its challenges, and emphasized that this is particularly evident here in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Depending on whether they are noticed in time, how well they are understood, and how well they are responded to, those generations leave a positive or negative mark on history. I would be happy if our generation were remembered for making the defended, but exhausted homeland, a place of desirable living to which young people return,” Dean Zukanović concluded his address.

After this session, all participants attended a commemorative program for all those who perished, and flowers were laid at the memorial monument at the Markale market by family members, representatives of all levels of government in BiH, the international community, and the non-governmental sector.

And as part of the mentioned commemoration program, the Minister of Labor, Social Policy, Displaced Persons, and Refugees of KS, Ivana Prvulović, briefly addressed all attendees.

“I will use today's day of remembrance to remember the frozen and hungry citizens of Sarajevo whose electricity was cut off, water turned off, and telephone lines to the world disconnected, those who ran through the streets of Sarajevo fleeing sniper fire and hid in basements from shells, people whom they tried to turn into animals fighting for mere survival, all of us whose dignity they tried to take away during those four years,” said Minister Prvulović at the beginning of her address, and called on all those who escaped the judgments of earthly courts for committing the aforementioned atrocities to be remembered and to bow their heads.

Among other things, she also called on neighbors to speak about mass graves, so that the killed and their families could finally find peace.

“Finally, I call on all of us to daily and tirelessly renounce retrograde ideas, and for all of humanity not to minimize neo-fascism, so that Markale never happens to anyone again,” stated Minister Prvulović, and invited all of us to preserve from oblivion all the good people from that time of evil, all those who resisted madness, who hid, saved, and defended their friends from that evil.

29 years ago, at Markale, the following were killed: Senad Arnautović, Ibrahim Babić, Mehmed Baručija, Ćamil Begić, Emir Begović, Vahida Bešić, Gordana Bogdanović, Vaskrsije Bojinović, Muhamed Borovina, Faruk Brkanić, Sakib Bulbul, Jelena Čavriz, Almasa Čehajić, Zlatko Čosić, Alija Čukojević, Verica Ćilimdžić, Smilja Delić, Ifet Drugovac, Dževad Durmo, Fatima Durmo, Kemal Džebo, Ismet Fazlić, Vejsil Ferhatbegović, Dževdet Fetahović, Muhamed Fetahović, Ahmed Fočo, Majda Ganović, Isma Gibović, Rasema Hasanović, Alija Hurko, Mirsada Ibrulj, Mustafa Imanić, Rasema Jažić, Razija Junuzović, Hasija Karavdić, Mladen Klačar, Marija Knežević, Selma Kovač, lbro Krajčin, Sejda Kunić, Jozo Kvesić, Numo Lakača, Ruža Malović, Jadranka Minić, Safer Musić, Nura Odžak, Mejra Orman, Hajrija Oručević, Seid Prozorac, Smajo Rahić, Igor Rehar, Rizvo Sabit, Zahida Sablja, Nedžad Salihović, Hajrija Smajić, Emina Srnja, Džemo Subašić, Šaćir Suljević, Hasib Šabanović, Ahmed Šehbajraktarević, Bejto Škrijelj, Junuz Švrakić, Pašaga Tihić, Munib Torlaković, Ruždija Trbić, Džemil Zečić, Muhamed Zubović, and Senad Žunić.

We remind you that the busiest Sarajevo market, Markale, was one of the supply points during the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995, and an opportunity for the residents of the besieged city to get supplies. At that place, food products and everything that could in any way help the citizens of Sarajevo survive the difficult war days and the siege were traded, including the exchange of information. Markale was also a meeting place for friends and a place for making new and renewing old acquaintances during the siege of Sarajevo.

The market and the covered City Market Markale in the old part of Sarajevo were shelled twice. After February 1994, in the massacre at the very end of the war, on August 28, 1995, 43 civilians were killed and 84 wounded near the Markale City Market.

The siege of Sarajevo began on April 5, 1992, and ended on February 29, 1996. It lasted 1,425 days. During that time, about 350,000 residents were exposed to daily fire from members of the former JNA and paramilitary formations, and later members of the Army of Republika Srpska, from almost all types of weapons, from positions located on the surrounding hills. They did not manage to descend and capture the city only thanks to the immense will, desire, and efforts of the defenders, mostly citizens who responded to the call for defense, and at the beginning almost unarmed, in sneakers and jeans, with minimal weapons, stood on the city's ramparts.

During the siege, 11,541 citizens of Sarajevo were killed, including 1,601 children, and over 50,000 civilians were lightly or seriously wounded. It is estimated that about 500,000 projectiles were fired at the city during the siege, while it was recorded that on July 22, 1993, a record 3,777 projectiles were fired at the city. On average, 329 shells were fired at it daily.

Radovan Karadžić, former president of Republika Srpska, was finally sentenced to life imprisonment in March 2019 by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (MICT), among other things, for terrorizing and shelling the citizens of Sarajevo, which is also one of the points for which Ratko Mladić, commander of the Main Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), was sentenced to life imprisonment in June last year. For the killing of 68 citizens of Sarajevo and wounding 142 of them, the commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, Stanislav Galić, was also convicted. The Hague Tribunal sentenced Dragomir Milošević in 2009 to 29 years in prison for terrorizing civilians in Sarajevo.