Italian prosecutors have alleged that wealthy “Sniper Tourists,” many from western countries, paid upwards of $90,000 to shoot civilians, including children, during the Bosnian War between 1992 and 1996.
The prosecutors in Milan alleged that these “Sniper Tourists” would pay Bosnian Serb troops to partake in “human safari” trips to Sarajevo during the four-year siege of the city. Per the Guardian:
More than 10,000 people were killed in Sarajevo by constant shelling and sniper fire between 1992 and 1996 in what was the longest siege in modern history, after Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia.
The snipers were perhaps the most feared element of life under siege in Sarajevo because they would pick off people on the streets, including children, at random, as if it was a video game or a safari.
Groups of Italians and other nationalities, so-called “sniper tourists”, are alleged to have participated in the massacre after paying large sums of money to soldiers belonging to the army of Radovan Karadžić, the former Bosnian Serb leader who in 2016 was found guilty of genocide and other crimes against humanity, to be transported to the hills surrounding Sarajevo so that they could shoot at the population for pleasure.
Sniper attacks in Sarajevo were relatively easy due to the city’s geography in a basin surrounded by hills, mountains, and forests.
The investigation into certain Italian citizens who allegedly participated in this ghastly enterprise began after Ezio Gavazzeni, a Milan-based writer, submitted a legal complaint claiming that he had gathered evidence to support the allegations. The prosecutors were also given a report of the allegations from the former mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karić.
Gavazzeni said he first learned of the alleged “Sniper Tourists” through the Italian press in the 1990s, but later vowed to investigate further upon the release of the 2022 documentary Sarajevo Safari by Slovenian director Miran Zupanič, which claimed that westerners would travel to the city to partake in the killing. Serbian war veterans have vehemently denied the accusations.
“Sarajevo Safari was the starting point,” said Gavazzeni. “I began a correspondence with the director and from there expanded my investigation until I collected enough material to present to the Milan prosecutors.”
On top of the “many, many, many Italians” that allegedly partook in the atrocity, Gavazzeni also claimed there were “Germans, French, English … people from all western countries who paid large sums of money to be taken there to shoot civilians.”
“There were no political or religious motivations. They were rich people who went there for fun and personal satisfaction. We are talking about people who love guns who perhaps go to shooting ranges or on safari in Africa,” he said.
“There was a traffic of war tourists who went to there to shoot people,” he added. “I call it an indifference towards evil.”
Snipers were a deadly force during the siege of Sarajevo, with civilians being picked off at random in various areas of the city, including buses, bridges, and main streets. Meša Selimović Boulevard, one of the chief routes into the Sarajevo airport, was nicknamed “Sniper Alley” due to the excessive deaths from distant sniper fire.
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