Irina Cisic celebrated her first birthday on October 8th, 1993. Just four days later, while she was walking with her mother through the Sarajevo neighborhood of Ciglane, she was hit by a sniper bullet. She was one year and four days old. Three decades later, her parents are still seeking an answer to the same question: was their daughter killed accidentally, or for amusement.
Their pain has been reopened in recent days following reports by Italian media about an investigation being conducted in Milan, relating to the so-called “weekend snipers” and allegations of the “Sarajevo Safari.”
An emotional testimony
The mother of the murdered girl, Stana Cisic, recalls the moment that forever changed her life.
“I heard a dull sound. I thought her diaper had burst. When I looked at the child, I saw that I was losing her, that she had been hit,” says Stana.
She recalls that she and her husband Samir, have been together since 1985, and after six years of marriage, they began living in Vojnicko Polje. Soon she learned she was pregnant. The war caught them in April 1992, and she gave birth to Irina in Belgrade. When the baby was six months old, she decided to return to besieged Sarajevo.
“Watching television, I realized that life existed in Sarajevo as well. I just sent a message – I’m coming. In April 1993, I entered Sarajevo. I have never regretted it,” she says.
That day, she says, she went out for a short walk with Irina. It was a beautiful day. They went to her husband’s base, stayed briefly, and then headed back. For a moment, she put the child down.
“I just heard a dull sound. I didn’t even realize what was happening. The sniper bullet remained inside her. I saw that I was losing my child, her lips were blue,” she says.
Within three minutes, they were at the emergency center. On the child’s tracksuit, she saw only a tiny hole. Doctors fought to save the baby’s life. One doctor told her the chances were minimal. Her husband, Samir, she says, managed to enter the operating room, believing he would give the child strength.
“After the operation, the doctor said that all vital internal organs were damaged, the diaphragm as well… The heart was intact,” Stana testifies.
The sniper bullet that killed Irina was handed over by the mother after 30 years.
Father Samir Cisic says that during the war, it was said that “weekend Chetniks” came to Sarajevo on weekends and shot at the city.
“Someone fired that bullet. Find me who fired it. I was in the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH). I even had resistance from my colleagues. If all this existed, then they should be held accountable,” he says.
He adds that after his daughter’s death, he was completely broken.
“They tried to revive her, but my child was dead. I shut myself in a room and didn’t talk to anyone. If I had any indication of who killed Irina, I wouldn’t need either our prosecutor’s office or the Italian one,” he says.
The story of Irina Cisic has been retold through a documentary film produced by Sehara. Sehara editor Adis Grabovica states that the film about the murdered baby came about spontaneously, after the topic of the “Sarajevo Safari” was reopened.
“Irina was killed by a sniper shot just four days after her first birthday. She was surrounded by three other adult women, which means that someone deliberately targeted the baby. That detail in itself is horrifying,” says Grabovica.
He adds that the project received institutional support only from the Municipality of Novo Sarajevo, while other institutions remained silent.
“Already now, we are encountering the obstacle that some children no longer have living relatives who can tell their story. There are fewer and fewer of us, and that is why it is important to speak out loudly,” he says.
100.000 euros for ‘hunting trips’
At the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, the case relating to allegations of the “Sarajevo Safari” was opened back in 2022, based on a report by the then Mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karic. At the same time, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH states that Italian judicial institutions have not contacted them, even though a formal investigation has been opened in Milan against Italian citizens for intentional murder with aggravating circumstances of cruelty and base motives.
The documentary film “Sarajevo Safari,” which premiered in 2022 at the Al Jazeera Balkans DOC Festival, is one of the key pieces of evidence in the Italian investigation. According to the allegations, wealthy Italians allegedly paid up to 100.000 euros for “hunting trips” to positions around Sarajevo, including Grbavica.
Although domestic and foreign journalists reported during the war on shelling, the killed and the wounded, very little was known about the so-called “weekend warriors.”
German journalist Erich Rathfelder states that now, one generation later, facts are coming to light that heavily burden politics. According to him, the current President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, stayed in Sarajevo in 1992 and 1993 as a war volunteer, as a member of a volunteer paramilitary unit of the Serbian Radical Party led by Vojislav Seselj.
According to claims by Croatian investigative journalist Domagoj Margetic, Vucic participated in “human hunting” in Sarajevo, and testimonies were submitted to the prosecutor’s office in Milan. It is also alleged that he fired at the city from the Jewish Cemetery.
Official data
During nearly four years of the siege of Sarajevo, every tenth killed child was hit by a sniper shot, while more than 14.000 children were wounded. Despite this, no sniper has been held personally accountable.
The Hague Tribunal, in verdicts against the highest officials of Republika Srpska (RS), concluded that the sniper campaign had a clear goal – terrorizing the civilians of Sarajevo.
Florence Hartmann, former spokesperson of the Hague Prosecutor’s Office, said that the Tribunal was aware of the existence of “tourist expeditions of death.”
For the parents of Irina Cisic, three decades later, the same question and the same pain remain. And the hope that someone will finally name those responsible, N1 writes.
