Sarajevo marks 32 years since Markale market massacre

The commemoration serves as a reminder of the suffering endured by Sarajevo's residents during the three-and-a-half-year siege. State and entity officials, High Representative Christian Schmidt and local authorities paid tribute by reading out the names of the victims and laying wreaths at the memorial at the site of the attack. Another 142 people were wounded in the massacre.

Because of the scale of the tragedy, 5 February has been designated a day of remembrance for all victims of the siege of Sarajevo, during which more than 11,000 people were killed, including 1,601 children.

The Markale market was again targeted in late August 1995, when a mortar attack killed 43 people and wounded 84. That attack proved a turning point in the war, prompting NATO air strikes against Bosnian Serb positions across the country.

The strikes paved the way for ground operations by the Croatian Army, the Croatian Defence Council and the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which regained significant territory and helped open the path to peace talks in Dayton, culminating in the November 1995 peace agreement.

Responsibility for the 1994 Markale massacre formed part of the verdict by the Hague war crimes tribunal sentencing Stanislav Galic, commander of the Bosnian Serb Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, to life imprisonment. Bosnian Serb wartime leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, also sentenced to life terms, were likewise found guilty of a campaign of terror against Sarajevo's civilian population during the siege.