Milan prosecutors have opened an investigation against Italians who allegedly paid huge sums of money to the Serbian militia so they could become “weekend snipers” who, for fun, killed Bosnian citizens during the siege of Sarajevo from 1993 to 1995, in which 11.000 people were killed, Italian media reported on Monday.
Mostly far-right gun fanatics allegedly left Italy, paying “enormous” amounts to Serbian soldiers to take part in the siege of Sarajevo and shoot at citizens of the Bosnian capital “for fun” during the war.
In order to identify these “war tourists,” an investigation is underway in Milan aimed at identifying those who participated in the massacre.
The case, which Italian media had already reported on in July, was opened by prosecutor Alessandro Gobbis on charges of intentional murder aggravated by cruelty and vile motives.
Charges are currently being filed against unknown persons, and they arise from a complaint filed by journalist and writer Ezio Gavazzeni, with the assistance of two lawyers and former judge Guido Salvini.
According to testimonies collected across northern Italy, these “weekend snipers,” mostly far-right sympathizers with a passion for weapons, gathered in Trieste and were then taken to the hills around Sarajevo, where they could shoot at the population of the besieged city after paying the militias of Bosnian Serbs under Radovan Karadzic.
The case file also includes a report on these “wealthy foreigners engaged in inhuman activities,” which was sent to the Milan Prosecutor’s Office by the former mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karic.
For now, the investigation records include only the documents submitted by the author of the complaint, dated January 28th, and in the coming weeks, prosecutor Alessandro Gobbis, in charge of the Carabinieri ROS special operations unit, will have to investigate further, possibly interviewing the persons named by the author.
For now, the writer explains, “these are only ‘tips,'” but it is evident that there was also a “price for these killings: children cost more than men (preferably in uniform and armed), women, and finally the elderly, who could be killed for free.” The writer also refers to the 2022 documentary Sarajevo Safari and explains that “director Miran Zupanic gave us the passwords for limited viewing of the film on Al Jazeera’s website, and I can provide them to the judge who requests them.” An “anonymous” witness also appears in the film.
And again: “Some sources speak of Americans, Canadians, and Russians, but also Italians, who were willing to pay to play war.” The clients, said a former Bosnian 007, were “certainly very wealthy people” who “could financially afford such an adrenaline challenge.” Given the way “everything was organized, Bosnian intelligence services believed that behind it all stood the Serbian State Security Service.” And with “the infrastructure of the former Serbian charter and tourist airline Aviogenex.” Jovica Stanisic, “convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, played a key role in this service.” According to the complaint, among those “sniper tourists” were also hunting and weapons enthusiasts.
