Bosnia marks 28th anniversary of Sarajevo market massacre

By Ahmet Nurduhan

SARAJEVO (AA) – Bosnians gathered Saturday to commemorate the 28th anniversary of a massacre that took the lives of 68 people and injured nearly 150.

The 1994 Markale marketplace shelling was one of the biggest massacres committed during the siege of Sarajevo from April 1992 to December 1995.

In a ceremony to mark the anniversary, participants – including family members of the victims, survivors and Bosnian politicians – paid tribute, laid wreaths, and prayed for the dead.

“No one should forget the massacre ... I can understand the healing of people's wounds as time goes on, but no one has the right to forget the events that took place throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially this incident,” said Zeljko Komsic, Croat member and current chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On Aug. 28, 1995, a second mortar exploded in the main market square, killing 43 people and injuring 75 others.

In Sarajevo, which was besieged for 44 months during the war, 11,541 people, including 1601 children, were killed.

- War crimes

The shelling is among the crimes former Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic was found guilty of committing during his trial at the International Criminal Tribunal.

The UN court in The Hague also sentenced former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic to life in prison for spreading terror among civilians in the capital of Sarajevo and other parts of Bosnia in an attempt to clear non-Serbs from certain territories.

He was also found to have had "significant responsibility" for the 1995 genocide of over 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.

For the Markale massacres, the court sentenced Dragoslav Milosevic, commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska, to 29 years in prison, among other charges.

*Writing by Seda Sevencan