Authorities in Milan have launched an investigation into claims that Italian tourists spent £70,000 to partake in so-called ‘human safari’ hunting expeditions in Sarajevo, where they allegedly targeted civilians, including children, for an additional fee.

These affluent gun enthusiasts are accused of engaging in ‘sniper tourism’ during the infamous four-year siege of Sarajevo by Serb-Bosnian forces in the 1990s amidst the Bosnian War.

From 1992 to 1996, Sarajevo endured the longest siege of a capital city in modern warfare, resulting in the deaths of over 10,000 individuals due to relentless shelling and sniper attacks.

Reports suggest these tourists, who purportedly had connections to far-right groups, paid Bosnian Serb army members to partake in weekend trips to the embattled city. During these trips, they allegedly participated in the horrific killing of civilians for sport.

The investigation indicates that these individuals traveled from Trieste to Belgrade via the Serbian airline Aviogenex, where they assumed roles as ‘weekend snipers,’ paying sums ranging from £70,000 to £88,000 to join in the brutal siege.

The killing of children cost more, El Pais reported.

The investigation originated from a 17-page legal complaint submitted by Milan-based writer and journalist Ezio Gavazzeni, with the support of former magistrate Guido Salvini and Benjamina Karic, mayor of Sarajevo from 2021 to 2024.

The allegations came to light in the 2022 documentary ‘Sarajevo Safari’ by Slovenian filmmaker Miran Zupanic, who gathered testimonies about the possibility of wealthy Italians and other nationalities paying to travel to Sarajevo to shoot at residents.

In 1992, a Bosnian soldier returns fire in Sarajevo as he and civilians come under fire from Serbian snipers

A French UN soldier stands alongside a group of Sarajevans seeking shelter behind a UN armoured personnel carrier from sniper fire

People run for cover as they pass an area of heavy Serb sniper fire in the besieged Bosnian capital

The tourists are accused of having paid large amounts of money to troops from Radovan Karadžić’s army, the former Bosnian Serb leader who in 2016 was sentenced to 40 years for genocide and other crimes against humanity.

The moneyed foreigners were allegedly transported to the hills surrounding Sarajevo to take aim at passersby, whose everyday lives were tainted by the fear of being targeted indiscriminately by gunmen during the city’s siege.

Streets such as Ulica Zmaja od Bosne and Meša Selimović Boulevard, the main road running into Sarajevo, were nicknamed ‘Sniper Alley’ because of the extreme danger they posed to residents.

Meša Selimović Boulevard could not be avoided, however, as it was the way to Sarajevo airport.

The Bosnian Attorney General’s Office apparently shelved an investigation into the ‘sniper tourism’ because of the difficulty of probing such a case in a country still deeply scarred and divided by war, Gavazzeni told la Repubblica on Tuesday.

‘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,’ he said. 

Lead prosecutor Alessandro Gobbi is understood to have a list of several people who can provide testimony and may be called to give evidence. 

Gavazzeni said that there could be up to 100 tourists who took part in the mass-shooting of civilians for weekend sport.

The case mentions a Milanese businessman who owns a private cosmetic surgery clinic, as well as citizens from Turin and Trieste, Le Pais reported.

Romanian freelance photographer Vadim Ghirda (C) and locals carry a dead Bosnian Muslim as Norwegian and Swedish IFOR soldiers return fire at Bosnian Serb gunmen, 1996

Two-year old Aldijana Mujezinovic is carried by a female UN soldier after being evacuated by helicopter from the Eastern Bosnian town of Gorazde to Sarajevo Monday April 25, 1994

An identified Bosnian Serb soldier in 1994 aims an anti aircraft missile at NATO warplanes flying over Serbian positions on Mount Trebevic

‘I hope they can locate at least one or two, maybe 10,’ he said.

The journalist said that one of the witnesses includes a Bosnian intelligence agent with the initials E. S., who claimed Italian intelligence had information about the allegations in 1993 and that classified files on the case still exist.

Apparently, Bosnian intelligence warned of the presence of at least five Italians in the hills around Sarajevo, accompanied there to shoot at civilians, according to the witness.

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.

The Bosnian consul in Milan, Dag Dumrukcic, told la Repubblica that Italy had the ‘full cooperation’ of his country’s government. 

‘We are eager to uncover the truth about such a cruel matter and settle accounts with the past. I am aware of some information that I will contribute to the investigation,’ he said.