A Croatian investigative reporter has filed a complaint with prosecutors in Milan accusing Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić of involvement in an alleged “Sarajevo safari” scheme in the 1990s, in which foreign nationals purportedly paid to shoot civilians during the siege of Sarajevo, according to the Guardian.
Milan prosecutors last week opened an investigation to identify Italian citizens suspected of taking part, the newspaper reported. They are examining alleged cases of voluntary murder aggravated by cruelty and base motives.
Investigators believe groups of “sniper tourists” paid Bosnian Serb soldiers loyal to Radovan Karadžić to access positions overlooking Sarajevo, where more than 10,000 people were killed by shelling and sniper fire between 1992 and 1996. Karadžić was convicted of genocide and other crimes against humanity in 2016.
The probe stems from evidence collected by Milan-based writer Ezio Gavazzeni and a report submitted by former Sarajevo mayor Benjamina Karić. Gavazzeni told the newspaper he first encountered claims of sniper tourism in Italian media in the 1990s and pursued the allegations further after watching Sarajevo Safari, a 2022 documentary by Slovenian director Miran Zupanič.
Croatian journalist Domagoj Margetić filed a separate complaint on Wednesday, posting what he described as evidence on social media alleging that Vučić, then a young volunteer, had been present at a Bosnian Serb military post used by foreign shooters and ultranationalist units. Vučić has previously denied firing on Sarajevo, calling similar accusations political manipulation, the Guardian reported.
Gavazzeni alleged that “many” Italians, as well as individuals from Germany, France and the UK, took part, claiming they paid large sums for the opportunity. He offered no specific numbers. He said participants met in Trieste and travelled through Belgrade before being taken to sniper positions around Sarajevo.
“There was a traffic of war tourists who went there to shoot people,” Gavazzeni said, describing the alleged actions as “indifference towards evil”.