Ahmed Kamel – Egypt Daily News
Italian prosecutors have launched an investigation into chilling allegations that wealthy tourists from Italy paid tens of thousands of pounds to shoot civilians in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, in what has been described as a “human safari.”
According to prosecutors in Milan, the inquiry centers on claims that affluent foreigners traveled to Bosnia between 1992 and 1996, during the four-year siege of the Bosnian capital, to take part in so-called “sniper tourism.” Participants allegedly paid up to £88,000 to members of the Bosnian Serb army for the opportunity to fire on residents trapped in the besieged city with an additional fee reportedly charged for killing children.
The investigation follows a 17-page legal complaint filed by Milan-based journalist and writer Ezio Gavazzeni, supported by former magistrate Guido Salvini and Benjamina Karić, who served as mayor of Sarajevo from 2021 to 2024. Gavazzeni’s complaint draws heavily on testimony and evidence referenced in Sarajevo Safari, a 2022 documentary by Slovenian filmmaker Miran Zupanič. The film first raised public awareness of allegations that wealthy foreign nationals paid Bosnian Serb forces to shoot at civilians for sport during the city’s siege.
Between 1992 and 1996, more than 10,000 people were killed in Sarajevo, most by sniper fire or shelling, in what became the longest siege of a capital city in modern history. Streets such as Ulica Zmaja od Bosne and Meša Selimović Boulevard became known as “Sniper Alley,” where civilians risked their lives simply crossing the road to find food, fetch water, or reach safety.
The accused tourists, said to have ties to far-right political circles, allegedly flew from Trieste to Belgrade on the now-defunct Serbian airline Aviogenex, before being transported to the hills surrounding Sarajevo to take aim at unsuspecting residents below. They are accused of paying members of the army loyal to Radovan Karadžić, the Bosnian Serb leader later convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
“We are talking about wealthy people, with reputations businessmen who during the siege of Sarajevo paid to kill unarmed civilians,” Gavazzeni told la Repubblica. “They left Trieste for a manhunt and then returned to their respectable daily lives.”
Gavazzeni said there may have been as many as 100 such “tourists,” some of whom were Italian nationals from Milan, Turin, and Trieste. One individual named in the case reportedly owns a private cosmetic surgery clinic in Milan. “I hope they can locate at least one or two, maybe 10,” Gavazzeni said.
Lead prosecutor Alessandro Gobbi is understood to be reviewing witness statements, including testimony from a Bosnian intelligence agent, identified only as E.S., who claimed that Italian intelligence services were aware of the allegations as early as 1993 and that classified files on the matter still exist. The agent reportedly warned of at least five Italians seen in the hills around Sarajevo during the siege, accompanied by Serb soldiers as they fired on civilians.
Additional witnesses include a Slovenian intelligence officer, several victims of the siege, and a firefighter who testified during the 2002 war crimes trial of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević in The Hague. That witness described “tourist shooters” distinguished by their clothing and weapons, which differed from standard military equipment used by Serb forces.
The Bosnian Attorney General’s Office had previously shelved a similar investigation, citing the practical and political difficulties of pursuing such a case in a country still marked by post-war divisions. But with new testimony and pressure from Italy, the Milan prosecutors’ inquiry could reopen one of the darkest and least-explored chapters of the Bosnian conflict.
Dag Dumrukčić, Bosnia’s consul in Milan, said his government was fully cooperating with the Italian investigation. “We are eager to uncover the truth about such a cruel matter and settle accounts with the past,” Dumrukčić told la Repubblica. “I am aware of some information that I will contribute to the investigation.”
If confirmed, the allegations would expose one of the most grotesque episodes of the 1990s Balkan wars an era already defined by atrocities committed against civilians. The idea that outsiders might have paid for the chance to kill for sport during the siege of Sarajevo has horrified survivors and reignited debate over the failures of international oversight during the conflict.
As prosecutors in Milan begin gathering evidence, investigators face significant challenges: the passage of time, the destruction of wartime records, and the reluctance of witnesses to revisit one of Europe’s most traumatic modern tragedies. Yet for many in Sarajevo, the reopening of the case represents a long-overdue step toward justice and acknowledgment of horrors that, for decades, have remained buried in silence.
