(LifeSiteNews) — Italian prosecutors are investigating claims that wealthy Western tourists embarked on so-called “human safari” hunting trips to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War of 1992-1995. According to press reports, rich “manhunters” allegedly “paid members of the Bosnian Serb army for weekend trips to the besieged city where they participated in the massacre of residents for pleasure.”
The wealthy tourists allegedly paid £70,000 to gun down civilians during the four-year siege of Sarajevo, in which over 10,000 people died by shelling and sniper fire; the Serbs charged extra to shoot children. The Daily Mail stated that Milanese prosecutors are looking into the “wealthy foreign gun enthusiasts” who traveled to the warzone for “sniper tourism” by flying from Trieste to Belgrade on the Serb airline Aviogenex and were charged up to £88,000.
The claims originated in a 2022 documentary by Slovenian filmmaker Miran Zupanic titled Sarajevo Safari, in which he explored claims that wealthy customers from Italy and other nations flew in to gun down innocent people during the Bosnian nightmare. The tourists allegedly paid members of Radovan Karadžić’s army to escort them to the surrounding the city, where they would set up position and fire at residents. Karadžić was recently sentenced to 40 years in prison for genocide.
The documentary claims that the “safari manhunters” came from Canada, the United States, France, Germany, and Russia, as well as Italy.
The claims are difficult to parse because the killing of civilians by Serb snipers was incredibly common, with the infamous “Sniper Alley” Meša Selimović Boulevard, the main road into the city, turning into a shooting range for the besiegers. The claims in the film are based on the testimony of a Slovenian who worked for an American agency during the war; a retired Bosnian intelligence officer; and three surviving victims. A U.S. Marine also recounted seeing wealthy non-military snipers being escorted into the warzone.
The tourists, described by one interviewee as “bored millionaires” who wanted to hunt people like they “hunted deer,” were allegedly taken by Serb military personnel through UN-protected routes or tunnels, sometimes disguised as aid workers or journalists, sometimes wearing civilian clothing. Estimates indicate dozens of tourists involved, with potentially hundreds of civilian victims.
Now a 17-page legal complaint has been submitted by Milanese writer and journalist Ezio Gavazzeni, with backing from Guido Salvini, a former magistrate, and Benjamin Karic, who served as mayor of Sarajevo from 2021 to 2024. Gavazzeni stated that the Bosnian Attorney General had “shelved an investigation into the ‘sniper tourism’” due to “the difficulty of probing such a case in a country still deeply scarred and divided by war,” although the Bosnian authorities have promised full cooperation with the case.
“We are talking about wealthy people, with reputations – businessmen – who during the siege of Sarajevo paid to kill unarmed civilians. They left Trieste for a manhunt and then returned to their respectable daily lives,” Gavazzeni told the press. The Serbs have denied the allegation, calling it “propaganda”; the Hague Tribunal found insufficient evidence.
Lead prosecutor Alessandro Gobbi, however, is “understood to have a list of several people who can provide testimony,” and Gavazenni stated that up to 100 tourists could have been involved; the case specifically cites the Milanese owner of a cosmetic surgery clinic, as well as others from Trieste and Turin. A Bosnian intelligence agent, says Gavazenni, has agreed to serve as a witness, and has claimed that classified files with evidence are still in existence.
According to the Daily Mail: “Other witnesses include a Slovenian intelligence official, victims, and a wounded firefighter who, during the 2002 trial of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague, described ‘tourist shooters’ with distinctive clothing and weapons that distinguished them from Serbian soldiers.” Now these claims will finally get the thorough investigation that has long been badly needed.
