The Markale massacres were two bombardments carried out by the Army of the Republika Srpska targeting civilians during the Siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War. They occurred at the Markale (marketplace) located in the historic core of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The first occurred on 5 February 1994; 68 people were killed and 144 more were wounded. The second occurred on 28 August 1995 when five mortar shells killed 43 people and wounded 75 others. This latter attack was the stated reason for NATO air strikes against Bosnian Serb forces that would eventually lead to the Dayton Peace Accords and the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The first massacre occurred between 12:10 and 12:15 PM, on 5 February 1994, when a 120 millimeter mortar shell landed in the center of the crowded marketplace. Rescue workers and United Nations (UN) personnel rushed to help the numerous civilian casualties, while footage of the event soon made news reports across the world. Controversy over the event started when an initial UNPROFOR report claimed that the shell was fired from Bosnian government positions. General Michael Rose, the British head of UNPROFOR, revealed in his memoirs that three days after the blast he told General Jovan Divjak, the deputy commander of ARBiH forces, that the shell had been fired from Bosnian positions. A later and more in-depth UNPROFOR report noted a calculation error in the original findings. With the error corrected, the United Nations concluded that it was impossible to determine which side had fired the shell. In January 2003, the ICTY Trial Chamber in the trial against Stanislav Galić, a Serb general in the siege of Sarajevo, concluded that the massacre was committed by Serb forces around Sarajevo. Galić was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity during the Siege of Sarajevo.
And one night
when the moon was full and its silver spears
pierced her mournful heart
gently up the creaking stairs
allready more dead than alive
Weak and weary
pale and cold
blood still flowing
si it is told
At the top she dropped to the floor
just outside my bedroom door
silent as a dying day
with a whimper she passed away
tis said from shadows grey
devild come to take her away
as her sin made heaven reject her
hell set out to resurrect her
born of evil and all that may dwell
in the darkest, the deepest of hell
so tis told in these here parts
the devils bride she became
when hell took her heart
centuries ago, maybe more
still she comes to my bedrrom door