La Repubblica: Milan investigates “tourist snipers” who shot civilians during Sarajevo siege

The Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into allegations that wealthy Europeans, including Italians, paid for tours to Sarajevo during the city’s devastating siege in the 1990s. 

According to an article by La Repubblica, these individuals are believed to have participated in shooting civilians, including women and children, while enjoying the view from the surrounding mountains.

The suspected "tourist snipers" reportedly paid between €80,000 and €100,000 (adjusted for inflation) to soldiers in the army of Radovan Karadžić, the Bosnian Serb leader who was convicted of war crimes in 2016 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The tours, which were described as horrific "sniper safaris," offered a gruesome form of entertainment for wealthy individuals from Western Europe, with no apparent political or religious motives behind the killings, the paper outlines. 

Between 1992 and 1996, Sarajevo, a city surrounded by mountains, endured heavy shelling and sniper attacks, which led to more than 10,000 civilian deaths. Civilians were regularly targeted by snipers while walking the streets, with reports describing the attacks as indiscriminate, as if a form of twisted sport.

The investigation was prompted by a complaint from Milanese writer Ezio Gavazzini, who conducted his own inquiry into the matter. Gavazzini claims that individuals from Germany, France, England, and other Western countries participated in these tours. He emphasised that the motivation behind these killings was purely for personal gratification, not tied to any broader political or religious agenda.

A 1994 military intelligence document corroborates the existence of these "safaris", adding further weight to the claims. Sarajevo’s former mayor, Benjamin Karic, has expressed willingness to testify in the case, and in 2022, filed a lawsuit against unnamed individuals linked to the killings.

The story has gained further attention following the 2022 release of the documentary "Sarajevo Safari" by director Miran Županic, which sheds light on these atrocities. However, the film has been met with strong backlash from Serbian army veterans and organisations from the Republika Srpska, who have dismissed the allegations as false.

By Sabina Mammadli