Today, the delegation of the Sarajevo Canton laid flowers at the place of death of seven children in Bakarevica Street at number 5 (Bistrik) in the massacre committed by the Army of the Republic of Srpska 29 years ago.
On June 26, 1993, at 8.45 pm, seven children were killed by a grenade: Nihada Catic, Velida Mufti , Senad Pliska, Almir Poturic, Sanjin Rustempasic, Sinanudin Secerovic and Belma Zijadic.
In addition to the families of the killed children and the Canton Sarajevo delegation, today’s marking was attended by representatives of the City of Sarajevo, the Municipality of Stari Grad, the Association of Parents of Killed Children of besieged Sarajevo 1992-1995, the Union of Civilian Victims of the War in Canton Sarajevo.
On behalf of the Sarajevo Canton, Kemal Starogorcic, Assistant Minister of Economy for the Sector of Agriculture, Water Management and Forestry, addressed the audience today, reminding that 29 years ago a grenade from the aggressor positions of the Army of Republika Srpska interrupted children’s play.
“Seven children were killed. No one can imagine their parents’ suffering or understand their pain. I send my deep and sincere human sympathy for the irreparable loss “, stated, among other things, Starogorcic.
As he added, we will speak not only for the past and the present, but especially for the future, because it is necessary to constantly remind ourselves that such heinous crimes would not be repeated here or anywhere in the world.
“Therefore, we should remember the thousand-day siege of Sarajevo in which its citizens are mostly without food, water, electricity and gas … and despite such inhumane living conditions, they were exposed to constant shelling and sniping that killed over 12 thousand citizens of Sarajevo. “, Said Starogorcic.
According to him, regardless of the past, our future must be built on the equality of all peoples and citizens.
“We must insist on ideas on which Bosnia and Herzegovina can and must survive, and those are the idea of coexistence, mutual respect and tolerance. And in order for that to be the case, justice must be served and the perpetrators of these terrible crimes, even the one we are celebrating today, must be adequately punished “, concluded Starogorcic.
For crimes committed in Sarajevo, the International Court in The Hague sentenced Stanislav Galic, commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the Army of the Republika Srpska, to the maximum sentence, life imprisonment. The Court sentenced Dragomir Milosevic, who succeeded Galic, and who continued the crimes against Sarajevans, to 33 years.
Ratko Mladic, the commander of the General Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska, was also sentenced to life imprisonment. He was convicted, among other things, of a joint criminal enterprise “aimed at spreading terror among the civilian population of Sarajevo through a sniping campaign of shelling,” the Protocol and Press Service of CS reports.
