They paid to kill with sniper rifles in Sarajevo: Italy opens investigation

(Patria) - Prosecutors are investigating intentional homicide with aggravating circumstances and are ready to call the first witnesses of that war safari.

Milan – They were called "weekend snipers". Wealthy foreigners who paid huge sums (today's 80-100 thousand euros) to come to besieged Sarajevo and shoot at civilians – women, children, the elderly – just for fun. From Milan, Turin, Trieste or Venice, via Trieste to Belgrade, then Pale and the hills of Sarajevo. A weekend trip to hell, returning home on Monday as if nothing had happened.

Now, after 30 years, the Milan Prosecutor's Office has opened a file against unknown persons for multiple murders for base motives and with particular cruelty. Prosecutor Alessandro Gobbis has entrusted the investigation to the ROS Carabinieri. The file also includes a report from the former mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karić, which arrived directly in Milan: "Wealthy foreigners in love with inhumane feats".

It all started with a report (criminal complaint) by journalist and writer Ezio Gavazzeni (in cooperation with former judge Guido Salvini, known for the Piazza Fontana investigation). Gavazzeni collected:

- Testimony of the former intelligence officer of the Bosnian Army, Edin Subašić, who in 1993 captured a Serbian volunteer from Paraćin. He said that he went from Belgrade to Pale with a group of foreigners (including three Italians), and then to sniper positions near Grbavica. The Italians were not paid – they paid to shoot.

- Intelligence data from the Bosnian Army, which was forwarded to the Italian intelligence service SISMI (now AISI) back in 1993: "On the hills above Sarajevo are Italians from Trieste, who came to shoot civilians".

- One of those identified: the owner of a Milan clinic for aesthetic surgery. Others from Turin and Trieste.

"This was not ordinary war tourism," the file states. "It was a human safari. Children cost more."

The investigation also relies on the documentary "Sarajevo Safari" by Slovenian director Miran Zupanič (2022, Al Jazeera Balkans), where an anonymous witness (former agent) describes watching a foreigner aiming at a child in his mother's arms.

It is estimated that there were at least 10-200 Italians on these "weekend tours" between 1993 and 1995. Most of them were far-right sympathizers, gun enthusiasts, wealthy hunters who hunted lions in Africa, and in Sarajevo – people, reports Vijesti.ba.

Prosecutors are ready to call the first witnesses from Bosnia. Benjamina Karić already requested an investigation in Sarajevo in 2022, but everything stalled there. Now Milan is taking over.

If proven, there is no statute of limitations for war crimes.