On this day 30 years ago, 68 Sarajevans were killed and 142 wounded by a 120-millimeter mortar shell fired from a position of the Republika Srpska Army (VRS) at the Markale marketplace. Rafet Skenderovic and Vahida Tvico worked in this market during the war years. Even today, 30 years later, they say that images of horror are before their eyes whenever they come to Markale. "Blood flowed to the tram tracks, it was a stream," Skenderovic said.

Rifat and Vahida came today to pay respects to their friends, colleagues and fellow citizens who died on that fateful February 5, 1994. The two of them were lucky. Rifat's colleagues were killed. A friend of Vahida’s husband, who was standing on a bicycle next to them, also died.

“My desks stood where the shell fell. I went for coffee with two colleagues. A shell fell. The two of them died immediately, and I was fine. I stood between them. That's what Allah decreed for me, he didn't want to take me. I didn't work that day. Good thing my eardrums didn't burst from the force of the impact. The blood here flowed to the tram tracks as if it were a stream. I knew everyone who worked here. I went to the front line and when I would come back I’d come to the market to make money. We loaded the bodies and the injured. After that I fell, went to the cafe and the waitress Ruza gave me water and sugar,” Rifat recalled.

Vahida Tvico was on the first table near the pillar when the shell fell.

“My husband and I sat down to light a cigarette because we sold the goods and wanted to go home. At that moment, a colleague on a bicycle shook hands with him and the shell fell. The bike bent, it was crumpled, I've never seen that in my life. My colleague died immediately and fell, my husband and I survived. Whenever I come here, the images of blood and how we carried the dead and wounded are before my eyes. I wish it would never happen again to anyone,” said Vahida.

During the war, she also lost a child who was killed in 1993. He was 10 years and two months old.

Students of the “Mladen Pozajic” Music School were also at Markale today. They were brought by their teacher Mirela Jusic-Drekovic, who survived the Markale massacre as a child.

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Numerous delegations from all levels of government, as well as the families of the victims, attended the tribute to those killed.