Italy investigates claims that tourists paid to shoot civilians during Bosnia war
Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into shocking allegations that wealthy tourists from Italy and other countries paid to shoot civilians in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war of the 1990s.
According to journalist and novelist Ezio Gavazzeni, “very wealthy people” with a passion for weapons allegedly took part in so-called “sniper safaris” — paying large sums to fire on defenceless men, women, and children from Serb-controlled hills around the city, News.Az reports, citing BBC.
Gavazzeni’s complaint was filed with prosecutors in Milan and is being examined by Italy’s counterterrorism chief Alessandro Gobbis. The charge under review is murder.
The journalist says the evidence includes the testimony of a Bosnian military intelligence officer, who claimed that his colleagues uncovered details of the “safaris” in late 1993. He said Italy’s Sismi intelligence service was informed months later and replied that the trips had been stopped soon after.
“We’ve put a stop to it and there won’t be any more safaris,” the officer was reportedly told, according to Italy’s Ansa news agency.
Gavazzeni said he decided to revisit the story after watching the 2022 documentary “Sarajevo Safari” by Slovenian director Miran Zupanic, which alleged that foreigners from Italy, the US, and Russia participated in the killings.
He has since submitted a 17-page file of findings to prosecutors, including a report by former Sarajevo mayor Benjamina Karic.
More than 11,000 civilians were killed during the nearly four-year siege of Sarajevo, one of the most brutal chapters of the Bosnian war.
Reports suggest participants in the “safaris” paid up to €100,000 (around £88,000) in today’s value to shoot at civilians.
One high-profile case from the time involved Eduard Limonov, a late Russian nationalist writer and politician, who was filmed firing a machine gun into Sarajevo in 1992 while visiting Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, later convicted of genocide.
While Italian authorities pursue the new leads, British soldiers who served in Sarajevo told the BBC they never witnessed or heard of such “sniper tourism” during the war, calling the allegations “logistically difficult” and possibly an urban myth.
Still, prosecutors in Milan are moving ahead, trying to identify potential witnesses and verify whether wealthy foreigners truly paid to turn Sarajevo’s tragedy into a deadly game.
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