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Investigation Opens Into Claim Snipers Paid to Shoot Civilians

Prosecutors examine allegations of trips to Sarajevo offered during Bosnian war
Posted Nov 12, 2025 7:00 PM CST
Investigation Opens Into Claim Snipers Paid to Shoot Civilians
People march to remember the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in Nevesinjska, eastern Bosnia, on July 8, 2022. Thousands of people joined the peace march through the forests in memory of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre during the Bosnian war. It's Europe's only acknowledged genocide since World War II.   (AP Photo/Almir Alic)

Italian prosecutors are investigating claims that wealthy tourists traveled to Sarajevo in the 1990s to pay for the chance to shoot at civilians during the Bosnian war. The complaint filed in Milan says the Italian participants paid different rates, depending on whether they targeted men, women, or children, the BBC reports. The "sniper safaris" reportedly took place in the hills above the besieged city, which was under constant threat from Serb forces at the time. More than 11,000 people were killed during the nearly four-year siege of Sarajevo. The randomness of the shootings contributed to making the attacks possibly the most feared part of the siege, per the Guardian.

The allegations have surfaced periodically over the years, but the current investigation was spurred by a complaint from journalist Ezio Gavazzeni, who compiled testimony from a Bosnian military intelligence officer and other sources. According to the officer, Bosnian authorities became aware of the reputed "safaris" in late 1993 and relayed the information to Italy's Sismi military intelligence agency in early 1994. Sismi reportedly responded that the trips would be halted, and the practice is said to have stopped within a few months. Gavazzeni revisited the story after seeing the 2022 documentary Sarajevo Safari, which claims "human hunters" came from multiple countries, including the US, Russia, and Italy.

His findings, including a report by former Sarajevo Mayor Benjamina Karic, were handed to prosecutors in February. He alleges that Italians paid just over $100,000 for the experience and that as many as 100 people from various countries may have taken part. A report of war tourism gained notoriety in 1992 when Russian nationalist writer Eduard Limonov was filmed firing a machine gun into Sarajevo while touring front-line positions with Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who was later convicted of genocide. Limonov did not pay for the experience, however, and told Karadzic, "We Russians should take example from you."

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