Account of an event · Markale · August 28, 1995
Markale, 28 August 1995: Five Shells and 43 Killed at the Entrance to the City Market
On Monday, 28 August 1995, at about 11 a.m., five mortar shells fell near the Markale market in Sarajevo. One 120 mm shell landed in front of the main entrance to the City Market in Mula Mustafe Bašeskije Street, killing 43 people and wounding dozens. Two days later NATO launched the air operation Deliberate Force against VRS targets. Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić were later convicted by final judgment and sentenced to life imprisonment, among other things for terrorising the civilian population of Sarajevo.
This text was translated by machine and has not yet been reviewed.
A City under Siege
At the end of August 1995, the siege of Sarajevo had already lasted more than three years. The Markale market in the Centar municipality was one of the few places in the city where residents could obtain the little that was available, so people gathered around it every day.
The Attack of 28 August 1995
On Monday, 28 August 1995, at about 11 a.m., five mortar shells fell in the vicinity of the Markale market. One of them, of 120 mm calibre, landed in front of the northern, main entrance to the City Market in Mula Mustafe Bašeskije Street, where many people were present at that moment. According to the portal genocid.ba, the shell was manufactured in 1993 at the "Krušik" factory in Valjevo.
43 people were killed on the spot. Dozens were wounded – according to Radio Free Europe 84 people, although the sources differ on the number of wounded.
The Victims
The portal genocid.ba publishes a list by name of those killed at the Markale market on 28 August 1995. It includes: Omer Ajanović, Hidajet Alić, Salko Alić, Zeno Bašević, Husein Baktašević, Sevda Brkan-Kruščica, Vera Brutus-Đukić, Halida Cepić, Paša Crnčalo, Mejra Cocalić, Razija Čolić, Esad Čoranbegić, Dario Dlouhi, Salko Duraković, Alija Dževlan, Najla Fazlić, Rijad Garbo, Ibrahim Hajvaz, Meho Herceglija, Jasmina Hodžić, Hajrudin Hozo, Jusuf Hašimbegović, Adnan Ibrahimagić, Ilija Karanović, Mesudija Kerović, Vehid Komar, Muhamed Kukić, Mirsad Kovačević, Hašim Kurtović, Ismet Klarić, Masija Lončar, Osman Mahmutović, Senad Muratović, Goran Poturković, Blaženka Smoljan, Hamid Smajlhodžić, Hajro Šatrović, Samir Topuzović, Hamza Tunović, Ajdin Vukotić, Sabaheta Vukotić, Meho Zećo and Narima Žiga.
Who Fired
The shell was fired by the Vojska Republike Srpske. UNPROFOR investigated the attack and concluded that the shells had probably been fired from the Lukavica area, from a distance of 3,000 to 5,000 metres. Nevertheless, the UNPROFOR commander, General Rupert Smith, stated publicly on the same day that it was not clear who had fired the shells. The Serb leadership denied responsibility and accused the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina of the attack.
David Harland, head of UN civil affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, later testified before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) that it was he who had recommended a neutral statement to Smith, and that this created the myth that the UN had been unable to establish who had fired. The 1999 report of the UN Secretary-General to the General Assembly determined that all five shells had been fired from Bosnian Serb territory beyond reasonable doubt.
Operation Deliberate Force
Two days after the massacre, on 30 August 1995, NATO launched the air operation Deliberate Force against VRS targets around Sarajevo and elsewhere in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The operation lasted until 14 September 1995.