Italians are investigating the alleged shootings.
Italy is investigating claims that “sniper tourists” traveled from the country to Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early 1990s to shoot civilians for sport. These war tourists allegedly paid the equivalent of $115,900 today to shoot at civilians in the city of Sarajevo, which was under siege by Bosnian Serbs.
Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina made up the former Yugoslavia, a communist state. In the early 1990s, as communism collapsed, different regions declared independence. This led to an outbreak of war as Serbs began a campaign to ethnically cleanse Bosnian Muslims, known as Bosniaks. From 1992 to 1995, Bosnian Serbs surrounded Sarajevo, and more than 11,000 people died during the four-year siege, the longest in modern European history. Snipers attacked the city, targeting supermarkets, hospitals, and residential areas at random. Civilians feared the brutality, and even children were shot.
Reports now allege that wealthy Italians paid large sums to kill unsuspecting civilians from the hills surrounding the city. It’s alleged that rates for shooting men, women, the elderly, and children varied.
In 2022, a documentary called Sarajevo Safari by Miran Zupanic exposed how wealthy foreigners came for “human safaris.” Not just Italians but Americans and Russians were also involved.
One prominent figure filmed using a machine gun to fire multiple rounds into the city was Russian poet and politician Eduard Limonov. Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic personally gave him a tour of their hillside positions. Karadzic was convicted of genocide and sentenced to 40 years in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal in the Netherlands. Limonov was never prosecuted for these crimes and died in 2020.
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Milan-based writer Ezio Gavazzeni heard about sniper tourists decades ago, but the documentary led him to investigate further. He submitted his findings—a 17-page file—to prosecutors in Italy, which resulted in the current investigation. His report includes a statement from former Sarajevo mayor Benjamina Karic. Prosecutors in Milan are now working to identify those who may have been involved.
Gavazzeni told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, “[There was] a price tag for these killings; children cost more, then men, preferably in uniform and armed, women, and finally old people, who could be killed for free.”
Gavazzeni alleged that citizens of Italy, Germany, France, and the U.K. would travel to the northeastern Italian city of Trieste, then on to Belgrade. There, Bosnian Serb soldiers would take them to the hills for money. “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.”
A Bosnian intelligence officer confirmed that his colleagues learned about these sniper tourists and informed Italy’s military intelligence in 1994. After some months, the trips stopped. Former U.S. Marine John Jordan also told the International Criminal Tribunal in 2007 about these tourist shooters. However, members of the British forces told the BBC that it would have been logistically difficult to bring in people to shoot at civilians. They served in Sarajevo in the 1990s and never heard of it.
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