Killed in a Water Queue: 31st Anniversary of the Massacre in Hakije Turajlića Street in Dobrinja Marked

(Patria) - By laying flowers, reciting Fatiha, and observing a minute of silence, the 31st anniversary of the massacre in Hakije Turajlića Street, numbers 39, in Dobrinja was marked today.

On that fateful 07/12/1993, a mortar shell was fired from aggressor positions, falling on the mentioned location where a large number of citizens were waiting in line for water.

Due to the explosive fragmentation effect of the shell, 14 citizens of Sarajevo were killed and 16 were seriously or lightly wounded.

On this day, Ilham Jelovac, Ajdin Kirlić, Vinka Knehtl, Ljiljana Matić, Nedžiba Mehonić, Rahima Mehonić, Sedajeta Mehonić, Dragica Mićanović, Sulejman Selimović, Zorka Simić, Enisa Talić, Ibrahim Talić, Jaminka Tvrtković, and Stela Tvrtković were killed at this spot.

Addressing the attendees, on behalf of the Canton Sarajevo delegation, Mirzet Sarajlić from the Ministry of Transport of CS reminded that 31 years ago, on this day, about 60 fellow citizens with canisters and buckets in their hands were waiting in line for water from a well, when a shell fired from the positions of the Army of Republika Srpska in Nedžarići killed 14 and wounded 16 people.

„Today, we remember our fellow citizens killed at this place, but also all those killed during the aggression against Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. We speak of them because it is extremely important, not only for the past and present, but especially for the future. We must remember the thousand-day siege of Sarajevo, during which its citizens were exposed to great suffering, without water, food, electricity, heating... and above all, they were exposed to constant shelling and snipers that killed more than 12,000 citizens of Sarajevo, including 1,601 children. I do not like to make divisions among people in any connotation, but I feel the need to mention that the shells and snipers from the hills did not choose age, gender, or religious or national affiliation,“ Sarajlić stated.

Recalling the sentences handed down for the committed crimes, he stated that it is too little to sentence only a few individuals for the suffering of all citizens of Sarajevo during four years of siege, and it is especially too little for more than 12,000 killed citizens and children, and more than 60,000 wounded, and that only in Sarajevo.

„Justice must be served, and the perpetrators of these terrible crimes, including the one we are marking today, must be adequately punished. However, regardless of the past, our future must be built on the equality of all peoples and citizens. We must persevere in the ideas on which Bosnia and Herzegovina can and must survive, and those are the ideas of coexistence, mutual respect, and tolerance,“ Sarajlić concluded.

In addition to the families of the deceased and the delegation of Canton Sarajevo, delegations from lower levels of government, representatives of the Union of Civilian War Victims of Canton Sarajevo, and students from Dobrinja schools also paid their respects to the killed today...