The 32nd anniversary of the murder of teacher Fatima Gunić and her students Adis Mujal, Vedad Mujkanović and Feđa Salkić was marked in Sarajevo on Sunday.
In memory of the murdered, at the site of the massacre on ZAVNOBIH Square, in addition to family members of the murdered, a delegation from the Sarajevo Canton led by MP Marijela Hašimbegović, as well as the City of Sarajevo, the Municipality of Novi Grad, the Alipašino Polje B-1 Community Center, the Association of Parents of Killed Children of the Besieged Sarajevo 1992-1995, the Union of Civilian Victims of War of the Canton of Sarajevo, etc., paid tribute and laid flowers, as well as the Fatima Gunić Elementary School, whose students performed a commemorative program.
Addressing the audience, Mayor Samir Avdić recalled that 32 years ago, a grenade was fired from a position of the Army of the Republika Srpska in Nedžarić, which killed a teacher and three students in the improvised premises of the Primary School “Prvi Maj” during classes, and seriously and lightly wounded 23 more students.
The grenade, as he recalled, fell in front of the concrete slabs that protected the entrance to the classroom, but part of the shrapnel passed through the cavities in the composition of those slabs. Just a few minutes later, another grenade was fired from the same location in Nedžarići, killing three and wounding seven citizens in front of the “Jedinstvo” municipal center on Independence Square.
“By marking this sad day, we are not only paying tribute to our murdered fellow citizens, but also sending a message that we will not forget. Places of remembrance, and today we are at one of them, are not only reminders of suffering and suffering, but also warnings for the future. It is a simple warning: to do everything we can to never allow such crimes to happen again,” said Mayor Avdić.
As he stated, Sarajevo survived the longest siege of modern times, the siege of the Army of Republika Srpska, which made no distinction in killing – everyone was there, of all ages, genders, religions or nations.
“In the longest siege of our city in modern history, more than 12,000 people were killed, including 1,601 children. These are huge numbers that we must not pronounce lightly, because each of them represents a name, a face, a story and the immense sorrow of families,” said the Mayor of Sarajevo.
As he emphasized, justice is our debt to the victims. Thanking those present for coming, he said that their presence sends a message that we persevere over hatred, that we choose solidarity and reject oblivion.
As he concluded, these places of memory are also places of hope – the hope that future generations will live in BiH that respects its past, accepts the truth and builds a common life on the foundations of justice and reconciliation.
