Local authorities in Sarajevo, some state officials and citizens gathered to mark the anniversary of the Markale market on Saturday, the site of the 1994 massacre in which 68 civilians lost their lives 28 years ago.

The first of the two massacres at the Markale, in the centre of Sarajevo, took place when a 120 mm mortar shell fired from a Bosnian Serb artillery position killed 68 residents and injured 142 in the downtown market.

Among those attending the anniversary gathering was the Croat member of Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency, Zeljko Komsic.

“On behalf of the generation that experienced all this during the war in BiH, especially in Sarajevo, on behalf of the families of those who suffered and on behalf of future generations, I think that no one has the right to forget (…) no one has the right to forget what happened to Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, including this crime against the citizens of Sarajevo,” he said as he laid wreaths at the site.

The Prime Minister of Canton Sarajevo, Edin Forto, said that “we noe live in a time of parallel realities.”

“It's unbelievable that something there are those who don’t believe something that has been established as a fact in a hundred different ways happened,” he said.

The rapporteur for the Western Balkans in Germany’s Bundestag, Adis Ahmetovic, also attended the gathering.

“This is something that should never happen again. That is why I came here today to be there as a German politician and a member of the largest party in the Bundestag,” he said.