Milan prosecutors have opened a formal investigation into disturbing allegations that wealthy Europeans paid tens of thousands of dollars to shoot at civilians during the Siege of Sarajevo three decades ago. The probe, led by counter-terrorism prosecutor Alessandro Gobbis, examines claims that Italians and other foreigners participated in so-called sniper safaris during the 1990s conflict.
Italian journalist Ezio Gavazzeni filed a 17 page legal complaint alleging that wealthy individuals with a passion for weapons paid to kill defenseless civilians positioned in hilly locations controlled by Serbs. The investigation centers on charges of voluntary murder aggravated by cruelty and abject motives, according to prosecutors handling the case.
The accused allegedly paid amounts equivalent to approximately $90,000 in today’s currency to Bosnian Serb army forces for the opportunity to fire on residents from the hills surrounding the war torn city. Multiple sources suggest that participants paid the modern equivalent of between €80,000 and €100,000, with witnesses claiming there was even a price list for targeted killings where foreigners would pay more to shoot children and men who were armed.
Gavazzeni stated he first read reports about alleged sniper tourists in Italian press during the 1990s, but only began investigating further after watching Sarajevo Safari, a 2022 documentary by Slovenian director Miran Zupanič. The documentary featured testimony from a former Serb soldier and contractor claiming that groups of westerners would shoot at the civilian population from elevated positions around the besieged capital.
According to Gavazzeni’s findings, the Italian suspects would meet in the northeastern border city of Trieste and travel to Belgrade, where Bosnian Serb soldiers would accompany them to the hills of Sarajevo. Italy’s Sismi military intelligence later reported that tourists flew from Trieste in northern Italy to Bosnia and traveled to the hills surrounding Sarajevo to allegedly participate in sniper safaris.
The investigation received support from multiple sources, including former Sarajevo mayor Benjamina Karić, who submitted documentation to Italian authorities. The Bosnian consul in Milan, Dag Dumrukcic, confirmed his government was working in full cooperation with the investigation, stating they are eager to uncover the truth of such a cruel affair and settle accounts with the past.
Among the witnesses whose testimony supports these allegations is John Jordan, a former New York firefighter and Marine scout sniper who volunteered in besieged Sarajevo. During multiple testimonies at The Hague war crimes tribunal, including trials of Bosnian Serb commanders in 2007 and 2012, Jordan provided details about foreign shooters he observed operating in and around Sarajevo. He described witnessing people who did not seem like locals because of their clothing, weapons, and the way they were being handled and guided by local forces.
Dzemil Hodzic, who was nine years old when the siege began and later founded the Sniper Alley Photo project archiving photographs from the period, told media outlets that weekends were always especially dangerous in Sarajevo, with information constantly circulating about people from outside coming to shoot at residents. His brother was killed by a Serb sniper while playing tennis in their neighborhood.
The Siege of Sarajevo lasted from April 1992 to February 1996, making it the longest siege of a capital city in modern warfare history. A report produced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) after the war put the death toll at 4,548 Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina soldiers and 4,954 Sarajevan civilians killed. The Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo found the siege left a total of 13,952 people dead, including more than 1,500 children.
The city’s main thoroughfare, including Ulica Zmaja od Bosne and Meša Selimović Boulevard, became infamously known as Sniper Alley during the conflict as Serbian sniper posts lined the streets. Residents risked their lives daily, sprinting across open streets while seeking food and water as marksmen fired from surrounding positions.
The documentary Sarajevo Safari claims people from Russia, Italy, Canada, the United States and other nations participated in these activities. One documented case involved Russian nationalist writer and politician Eduard Limonov, who was filmed during a 1992 documentary shooting a machine gun toward Sarajevo while personally accompanied by Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić.
Serbian war veterans have vehemently denied the claims. A former Bosnian intelligence officer told investigators that his service shared information with Italy’s military intelligence service about tourist groups of snipers departing from Trieste, receiving a response months later that the activity had been stopped.
Karadžić and his military commander Stanislav Galić were later convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity for their roles in orchestrating the siege. Both men received life sentences and are currently imprisoned in the United Kingdom and Germany respectively. Italian investigators hope to track down people who participated in the alleged safaris, in addition to five men already identified in Gavazzeni’s suit. Those identified could potentially be questioned by prosecutors in coming weeks as the investigation widens.
