Sarajevo, 05 February 2021

PRESS RELEASE THE MARKALE MASSACRE ANNIVERSARY

The Association for Social Research and Communication (UDIK) reminds the public of the 27th anniversary of the suffering of Sarajevo civilians who were killed on February 5, 1994 at Markale (marketplace) by the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) during the siege of the Sarajevo in the Bosnian war.

The first massacre occurred between 12:10 and 12:20, on February 5, 1994 when a 120 millimeter mortal shell landed in the center of the crowded marketplace. Rescue workers and United Nations (UN) personnel rushed to help the numerous civilian casualties, while footage of the event soon made news reports across the world. 68 people were killed and 144 more were wounded.

The Markale massacre is a war crime, and another evidence of the inhumanity, brutality and absurdity of the Bosnian war. The Markale massacre is the paradigm of all Serbian crimes in the siege of Sarajevo. The war crime happened right there because Markale was a gathering place for all citizens, civilians, different ages, different professions, different ethnicities and genders.

As representatives of civil society, we have an obligation and a duty to talk about Markale: because of the victims, because of history and ultimately because of future generations. Marking the Markale massacre anniversary should be and remain a genuine act of combating inhumanity and non-forgetting all the evil that was happening to Sarajevo during the nineties.

The Association for Social Research and Communications (UDIK) helps post-Yugoslav societies to establish the rule of law and to accept the legacy of massive human rights violations in order to identify the criminal responsibility of perpetrators, to meet justice and prevent the repetition of such crimes. It is the affirmation of the value of an open civil society, with clearly defined priorities in terms of promotion and protection of human rights, as well as youth involvement in social and political processes through peace activism.

PRESS SERVICE

ADDRESS: Grbavička 51, BA-71000 Sarajevo, TEL: 033 978 600, FAX: 033 978 605, E-MAIL: official.udik@outlook.com, WEB: www.udik.org CENTRAL REGISTER OF MONUMENTS (CES): [email protected]; PRESS: Tel: 061 603 820, E-mail: [email protected]