Sarajevo Agrees New Memorial for Child Casualties of Siege

The Minister for Veterans' Affairs of Sarajevo Canton, Hajrudin Grabovica, and the president of the Association of Parents of Children Killed during the Siege of Sarajevo 1992-95, Fikret Grabovica, signed a co-financing agreement on Thursday to establish the new Bijela Soba (White Room) memorial space dedicated to the memory of children killed during the war in Sarajevo.

Fikret Grabovica said that the memorial room will be a place where schoolchildren can learn about what had happened to others who were their age in Sarajevo when it was under siege by Bosnian Serb forces for three-and-a-half years.

"This memorial room will serve as a warning to future generations," he said.

He did not specify when the memorial might open.

Some 10,000 civilians were killed in Sarajevo during the 44-month-long siege, mostly by snipers and shells fired from mountains surrounding the city. Estimates of the number of children killed vary, but some put the death tally at around 1,600.

Sarajevo already has a War Childhood Museum, which has a collection of more than 3,000 personal items owned by children who lived through the 1992-95 conflict.

There is also a memorial to child victims of the siege in the city centre, engraved with the names of some of those who were killed.