Authorities in the United States and Italy are launching significant investigations into allegations that ‘sniper tourists’ paid $90,000 to travel and shoot at civilians during the brutal Bosnian conflict in the early 1990s. An intelligence officer has disclosed their unsettling motivations.
Disturbing revelations about the alleged ‘human safari’ during the three-year siege of Sarajevo have come to light, drawing renewed focus on the compelling 2022 documentary Sarajevo Safari. This film explores one of the lesser-known atrocities of the war through interviews with high-ranking officials from both sides of the conflict.
Edin Subasic, a Bosnian intelligence officer, recounted how a Serbian prisoner described foreigners entering the country by bus and being transported to Pale, a short distance from the city. From there, they were given opportunities to approach Sarajevo and fire their weapons from strategic vantage points at its besieged residents.
Subasic claimed that the individuals involved came from the US, Canada, Russia, and Italy, entering via adjacent countries. When questioned about the motivations for this dark tourism, Subasic chillingly remarked that these were ‘people with such luxury in their lives, they wanted a challenge that only money could buy.’
Journalist Ezio Gavazzeni has independently chronicled these crimes, asserting that these ‘very wealthy people’ paid $90,000 to participate in the targeting of civilians. This so-called ‘manhunt’ claimed victims of all ages during the longest siege in modern warfare.
“There were Germans, French, English … people from all Western countries who paid large sums of money to be taken there to shoot civilians,” Gavazzeni has claimed in a complaint now submitted to prosecutors in Milan.
In alignment with the Bosnian intelligence officer’s account, the journalist further noted, “There were no political or religious motivations. They were rich people who went there for fun and personal satisfaction. We are talking about people who love guns who perhaps go to shooting ranges or on safari in Africa.”
An unnamed source in the Sarajevo Safari documentary described how these foreign snipers had weapons and binoculars prepared for them by militants, effectively turning the city into a shooting range.
The same source recounted an incident where a foreign tourist attempted to target a mother and child, only to learn that he would be charged extra for shooting at children.
Another witness to the alleged ‘sniper tourists’ of Sarajevo, city resident Mirsad Sirajic, also shared his experiences in the documentary.
He mentioned that the city experienced the most intense gunfire on weekends, with ‘people from neighbouring areas’ arriving by bus to take shots at Sarajevo’s residents. ‘We call them weekend warriors,’ Sirajic explained.