A former US Marine has given a harrowing account of purported ‘human safari’ excursions where ‘tourists’ reportedly paid up to $90,000 to shoot civilians, including children, during the 1990s.
These alleged ‘human safaris’ are said to have taken place amidst the Bosnian War. Journalist and novelist Ezio Gavazzeni claims to have discovered evidence indicating that ‘sniper tourists’ from abroad could spend up to $90,000 to kill innocent people of all ages.
Gavazzeni described the events as a ‘manhunt’ orchestrated by ‘very wealthy people’ who were granted access to kill ‘defenceless civilians’ from Bosnian Serb positions in the hills surrounding Sarajevo during a brutal siege from 1992 to 1996, noted as the longest siege in modern warfare.
Reports suggest tourists paid varying amounts to shoot men and women, with the cost reportedly higher for targeting children.
“There were Germans, French, English…people from all Western countries who paid large sums of money to be taken there to shoot civilians,” Gavazzeni claimed, according to a complaint filed in Milan.
“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.”
In 2007, former Marine John Jordan provided testimony at The Hague concerning these allegations, as he had been shot in the chest while responding to a fire in the city.
He testified that snipers would often target the youngest members of a family.
“If an adult and child were walking together, the child would be shot,” he recounted. “If a family were walking, it would be the youngest. In a crowd of girls, it seemed that the most attractive would be shot.”
Jordan further observed: “I had witnessed on more than one occasion personnel who did not appear to me to be locals by their dress, by the weapons they carried, and by the way they were being handled, i.e., guided around by the locals.”
He detailed to the court that these ‘tourist shooters’ carried weapons that seemed more appropriate for ‘hunting boar in the Black Forest than urban combat in the Balkans’.
The investigation into these alleged ‘human safari’ trips is still underway, with Gavazzeni telling Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper that ‘many’ were involved in these acts.