Sarajevo marks Remembrance Day for 1,601 children murdered during siege

Officials and other citizens also attended the gathering, and together, with a minute of silence and prayers, remembered the 1,601 children killed during the 1,425-day siege of Sarajevo.

The words of parents carry a weight that no statistics can express. They speak not only of the past but also oblige us toward the future. Therefore, the President of the Association of Parents of Murdered Children of Besieged Sarajevo 1992–1995, Fikret Grabovica, at the beginning of today’s event, recalled the memorial dedicated to the murdered children as a symbol of the suffering of the youngest population during the siege of the city.

As he emphasized, the siege lasted 1,425 days, during which horrific crimes were committed. Crimes against the children of Sarajevo are the deepest wound of this city—a wound that reminds, warns, and obliges, especially those in power, to ensure a better and higher-quality life for today’s youth.

"During the siege, children were murdered intentionally, in a planned and systematic manner. It is a warning not to forget, because forgetting is also a crime. Young people, in particular, should carry this memory and the truth about the events during the siege, not for revenge, but as motivation to become good and successful people. That wound obliges all of us, especially those in authority, to provide young people with a decent and better life," he said.

Assistant Director for Extracurricular and Special Programs at the Institute for the Development of Pre-University Education, Semir Salihovic, told the media that, with the support of the Sarajevo Canton Government and the Association of Parents of Murdered Children of Besieged Sarajevo 1992–1995, the Institute has been organizing this event for the third consecutive year to mark the Day of Remembrance.

Nearly thirty years after the war, the memory of the 1,601 murdered children is thus preserved, safeguarding from oblivion the sacrifice made by the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sarajevo.