Numerous delegations laid flowers at the Kazani memorial above Sarajevo on Sunday and paid tribute to the innocent victims.
The delegation of the City of Sarajevo, which paid tribute and laid flowers, was led by Mayor Samir Avdić, who on that occasion emphasized that it is very important to pay tribute to all those who were innocently killed and that this shows a great responsibility.
“It is our obligation to be at this place every November 9th and to send a message, first of all, of Sarajevo as an open city, and secondly, that we take care of our innocently killed citizens and that it will be so in the future, and also for all generations to come, this is a message that the war in BiH should never happen to anyone again,” said Avdić.
When asked whether the content of the text on the memorial could change in the future, Avdić said that those who committed these crimes have been convicted and received a well-deserved punishment. “The monument maintains an exceptional measure of piety towards the people of Sarajevo, and I am sure that if there is a change, it will be a matter of mutual agreement,” he said.
The Prime Minister of the Sarajevo Canton, Nihad Uk, also said that it is very important to mark this day and remember the fallen fellow citizens.
“It is very important because it cast a shadow on the heroic defense of our city, our country. However, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, have shown their value because we prosecuted those responsible, and today we have the names and numbers of those responsible who committed these crimes, through the verdicts that took place immediately after the war. Today, after a few years since the monument was built here, we are fortunate to commemorate the suffering of our fellow citizens in a dignified way,” said Uk.
The Kazani Memorial, dedicated to the murdered citizens of Sarajevo in 1992 and 1993 at the Kazani site, was unveiled in November 2021.
The Sarajevo City Council previously accepted Mayor Karić’s proposal to officially designate November 9 as the Day of Remembrance for the Kazani Victims, when the exhumation of their remains began.
After the war, the remains of 23 victims were removed from the Kazani pit in several exhumations, 15 of whom were identified.
According to data from the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina (MINI BiH), there were five female victims and ten male victims, aged 27 to 66. Two victims were of Ukrainian nationality, two were Croatian, one victim was Bosniak and ten were Serbian.
Fourteen members of the 10th Mountain Brigade of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina were convicted for the murders committed at Kazani and for failing to report the crime and perpetrators during and immediately after the war. The commander of this unit, Mušan Topalović Caco, was killed in Sarajevo on October 26, 1993, during an arrest operation.
