Prosecutors in Milan have launched an investigation into Italians alleged to have paid huge sums of money to a Serbian militia to act as “weekend snipers,” killing Bosnian civilians “for fun” during the Siege of Sarajevo from 1993-95, which claimed 11,000 lives.
The newspapers Il Giorno and la Repubblica report today that these mostly far-right gun fanatics allegedly left Italy, paying “enormous amounts” to Serbian soldiers to participate in the siege of Sarajevo and shoot civilians in the Bosnian capital “for fun” during the war.
An investigation in Milan is ongoing to identify these “war tourists.”
The case, which Il Giornale had already reported in July, was initiated by prosecutor Alessandro Gobbis on charges of premeditated murder characterized by cruelty and shameful motives.
Currently, charges are being brought against unknown individuals, based on a complaint submitted by journalist and author Ettore Gavaceni, with the assistance of two lawyers and former judge Guido Salvini.
“Weekend Snipers”
According to testimonies collected throughout northern Italy, the “snipers” would gather in Trieste and then be transported to the hills around Sarajevo, where they could shoot at the population of the besieged city after paying Bosnian Serb militias loyal to Radovan Karadžić.
The case file also includes a report on these “wealthy foreigners involved in inhumane activities,” sent to the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office by the former mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karić.
At present, the investigation files include only the documents submitted by the complainant on January 28, and in the coming weeks, prosecutor Alessandro Gobbis, responsible for the Carabinieri special operations unit, is expected to investigate, possibly questioning the individuals identified by the author.
For now, the author explains, “these are just pieces of information,” but there was clearly also a “tariff” for these murders: “boys cost more than men (preferably uniformed and armed), then women, and finally the elderly, who could be killed for free.”
The author also refers to the 2022 documentary Sarajevo Safari, clarifying that “director Miran Župančić provided us with the codes to access the restricted screening on Al Jazeera’s website, which I can provide to the judge upon request.” The film also features an “unnamed” witness.
“Some sources mention Americans, Canadians, and Russians, as well as Italians, who were willing to pay to play war.” The clients, according to a former Bosnian 007, were “certainly very wealthy people who could financially handle such an adrenaline-filled challenge.”
Given the way “everything was organized, Bosnian intelligence services believed the Serbian state security service was behind it all,” and that it used the infrastructure of the former Serbian charter and tourism airline Aviogenex.
Jovica Stanišić, “convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, played a key role in this service.” According to the complaint, among these tourist snipers were also hunting and firearms enthusiasts. The hunting cover was used to transport the groups to their destination in Belgrade without raising suspicion.
According to an excerpt from the testimony of John Jordan, an American former firefighter who volunteered inside besieged Sarajevo in the 1990s, before the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague during the trial of Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladić:
“On more than one occasion, I saw people who did not seem local to me because of their clothing, the weapons they carried, the way locals treated, managed, and even guided them. I saw this in Sarajevo on many occasions.”
Excerpts from this 2007 testimony—which specifically refers to the so-called “tourist snipers,” who are now also under investigation by the Milan Public Prosecutor—are included in Gavaceni’s complaint to the Milan prosecutors.
“It was clearly evident,” the testimony continues 18 years ago, “that the individual guided by men familiar with the terrain was not at all familiar with it, and the clothing and weapons he carried made me believe he was a tourist sniper.”
Again: “When a boy shows up with a weapon more suitable for boar hunting in the Black Forest than for urban combat in the Balkans… When you see him handling it and realize he’s a beginner…”
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