Shocking allegations about organized “death safaris” targeting civilians during the siege of Sarajevo are brought to light in a new book by Croatian journalist Domagoj Margetić, according to a report by The Times.

The book, titled Pay and Shoot, claims that wealthy foreigners paid enormous sums to Bosnian Serb “middlemen” in order to participate in sniper attacks against civilians during the 1992–1996 period.

According to the claims included in the book, interested participants paid up to 80,000 German marks (equivalent at the time to around $53,000) to kill middle-aged women. The “price” allegedly increased to 95,000 marks for young women and reached as high as 110,000 marks (around $72,000 at the time) for pregnant women.

Margetić says the revelations are based on documents given to him by Bosnian intelligence officer Nedžad Ugljen, who was murdered in 1996. According to the author, Ugljen had collected testimonies from members of Bosnian Serb militias.

“Ugljen also wrote that the foreigners competed among themselves over who would manage to shoot the most beautiful women,” Margetić told the British newspaper.

The book also refers to the involvement of a European aristocrat, though he is not named. According to testimonies recorded by Ugljen, the man allegedly arrived in the area by helicopter, stayed in Vogošća near Sarajevo, and specifically asked to shoot children.

At the same time, the author claims that although the foreigners paid Serbian “middlemen,” the idea of these “human safaris” did not originate in Serbia but in Croatia. Margetić links the affair to Zvonko Horvatinčić, who allegedly worked for Yugoslav secret services in Croatia before the wars of the 1990s.

“It was an activity controlled by the security services, because foreigners were involved,” Margetić explains. “When the siege of Sarajevo began, wealthy Italians approached him in the summer of 1992 in order to go there.”

The siege of Sarajevo lasted from April 5, 1992, to February 29, 1996. Three times longer than the Battle of Stalingrad and also longer than the siege of Leningrad, it remains the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. More than 10,000 people are estimated to have been killed by sniper fire and shelling during the siege.

The new allegations follow an investigation launched last year by Italian authorities into claims that wealthy tourists paid more than $90,000 to participate in such missions. The investigation was opened after statements by investigative author Ezio Gavazzeni, who claimed that “there were Germans, French, English, and people from all Western countries who paid large sums of money to be taken there and shoot civilians.”

The aim of the investigation by Italian prosecutors is to identify any Italians who may have participated in the so-called “sniper tourism.” In February, an 80-year-old former truck driver was placed under investigation for multiple counts of premeditated murder as part of the same case. However, according to Reuters, it has not been clarified whether he directly participated in the killings.