Sarajevans gathered on Wednesday to mark the European Day of the Righteous by honouring Goran Cengic, a young ethnic Serb handball player from Sarajevo who met his demise when he tried to save a Bosniak neighbour from a man who later became a symbol of wartime atrocities in Sarajevo’s Grbavica neighbourhood.

Those gathered in memory of Cengic pointed out that despite the young handball player being known in the city as a symbol of righteousness, there are no streets, buildings or monuments carrying his name. The only place where they could honour him is his grave, they said.

Cengic’s body was found nine years after he was killed on June 14, 1992. He lost his life trying to save Husnija Cerimagic from the ‘Monster of Grbavica’, Veselin ‘Batko’ Vlahovic.

Vlahovic, a Bosnian Serb, was nicknamed by residents of Sarajevo’s Grbavica neighbourhood where he committed his war crimes.

Vlahovic was extradited by Spain to Bosnia in 2010, and the State Court sentenced him to 45 years behind bars for more than sixty crimes, including rapes, murders and torture.

Cengic, who was also a Bosnian Serb, left a very different legacy behind.

He remains, for Sarajevans, a symbol of good in times of evil.

Still, only several dozen gathered on Wednesday to honour his memory.

The 2012 Declaration says that one of the goals of the European Day of the Righteous is to teach “younger generations that everyone can always choose to help other human beings and defend human dignity.”

It also says that “public institutions have a duty to highlight the example set by people who managed to protect those persecuted out of hate.”

Retired Bosnian Army general Jovan Divjak said he hopes authorities “will figure out that this young man, this person, this family deserves a building,” to be named after Cengic, either a school or a sports centre. “And for youth living in his neighbourhood” to “accept all that happened in the past and build up their vision toward the future.”

Although initiatives to change that were submitted in the past, including one in the State Parliament seeking a monument to be built for Cengic, none of them were ever adopted.

The only thing left of Cengic today is his headstone, memories of a good sportsman and righteous person who did not lose his humanity at a moment when many others did.