27th Anniversary of the Markale Massacre Commemorated in Sarajevo

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The 27th anniversary of the killing of 68 Sarajevo citizens in the massacre of February 5, 1994, was marked today with a commemoration at the National Theatre of Sarajevo and the laying of flowers and paying of respects by family members, survivors, and delegations from all levels of government.

The organizers of the commemoration were the Assembly of Sarajevo Canton, the Sarajevo City Council, and municipal councils from the Sarajevo Canton area.

"Today we are gathered here with the same goal, not to allow the veil of oblivion to cover the innocent victims of Sarajevo and the crimes committed by the aggressor. Sarajevo will today remember all those who gave their lives for freedom and homeland," said Elvedin Okerić, Chairman of the Assembly of Sarajevo Canton, in his address.

He recalled that on this day 27 years ago, a horrific crime was committed at the Markale market.

"When 68 of our fellow citizens were killed and 142 wounded. The largest massacre of Sarajevo citizens in the past war was chosen as a symbol, and we mark it as a day of remembrance for all innocent citizens of Sarajevo killed during the siege of Sarajevo. February 5, 1994, was almost every day during the siege of 1992-1995, because more than 11,000 citizens of Sarajevo were killed," Okerić said.

Former member of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mirko Pejanović, recalled the suffering and pride of Sarajevans, the aggression and defense of the Bosnian capital and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Today's commemorative session is an act of expressing sympathy with the victims that Sarajevo had during the siege. The Greater Serbian state plan had the idea to destroy the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and carry out its ethnic division. At the head of that plan was Slobodan Milošević. That project brought violent expulsion and mass suffering of the Bosniak people, especially in eastern Bosnia and Bosanska Krajina," Pejanović said.

As he stated, the war goal to ethnically divide and destroy the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina led to a hellish undertaking to, through a multi-year siege and shelling of Sarajevo and mass murders of its citizens, prevent the resistance of patriotic and democratic forces, prevent the defense of a unified and internationally recognized state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

After the session, participants of the commemoration laid flowers at the memorial at the Markale market.

The commemoration was attended by member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Željko Komšić.

"Tragedy and evil. We Sarajevans have been left to preserve the truth and build a better Sarajevo. The more we remember those who perished, the better Sarajevo we will have," said Željko Komšić, member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

When asked by a journalist to comment on the news from Montenegro where a street is to be named after war criminal Ratko Mladić, he replied that evil has not died.

"When you think it's over, it turns out it's not. Probably, that is the fate of many generations, when everything seemed optimistic, when we hoped that at least war criminals would be treated properly, that did not happen. We can also put the decoration of war criminals in that context," Komšić replied.

The first of two massacres at the Markale market, in the very center of Sarajevo, occurred on February 5, 1994, between 12:10 and 12:20 PM, when a 120 mm mortar shell fired from aggressor positions in the Mrkovići area fell on the crowded market, killing 68 citizens and wounding 142 others, some seriously and some lightly.