Italian journalist Ezio Gavazzeni talks to Transitions about his recent investigation, which has prompted the courts to take action. 

The rumors and allegations swirling around cases of so-called sniper tourists during the Bosnian War may finally have some clarity soon – more than three decades after the end of the conflict. A documentary and a book released earlier this year have led the Italian authorities to launch an investigation of the alleged role of Italian citizens in shootings that took place in Sarajevo. Other countries are also springing into action. 

In recent months, Milan prosecutors have identified an 80-year-old Italian man, mainly thanks to the testimony of the inhabitants of his town. They have yet to indicate whether he was one of the snipers or helped with the logistics for clients, but the man is currently facing charges of premeditated murder. The suspect was interrogated in Milan and has been described by the Italian press as the owner of several firearms and nostalgic for the fascist era. Earlier this month, The Times of London also reported that an Italian aristocrat is also suspected of being one of those who had paid to take part in the so-called human safaris.

The infamous “Sniper Alley” became a symbol of the constant danger facing Sarajevo’s residents. Photo by Ludovic Hirlimann/Creative Commons

Austrian authorities have also confirmed that an investigation had been launched into the role of one of the country’s citizens but details have not been released. Magistrates from Italy, Austria, France, Switzerland, and Belgium are scheduled to meet on 29 June at the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) in The Hague. The summit is designed to coordinate their respective, ongoing investigations.

While the offenses and their status as violations of international law provide strong grounds for Italy and others to investigate and prosecute, significant challenges still remain in gathering evidence after such a long passage of time, accessing witnesses, and cross-border cooperation.

War Tourism

At the heart of the recent movement on these cold cases is Italian journalist and novelist Ezio Gavazzeni. He filed a criminal complaint last year, handing over to the authorities three years of research, which he later published as a book, Weekend Snipers, this past spring. 

Talk of wealthy, thrill-seeking foreigners journeying to Bosnia to kill innocent civilians have circulated for years.  Back in the 1990s, Corriere della Sera, one of the most important Italian newspapers, first mentioned the concept of “war tourism” in relation to the Sarajevo siege [see box]. In his book, Gavazzeni writes that the article, titled “Holiday in Bosnia,” provided a description of the “tourists” – dressed like hunters in camouflage and carrying rifles, with their visits allegedly coordinated by an organization that was in charge of bringing the Italians to Bosnia.

Italian journalist and novelist Ezio Gavazzeni. Photo courtesy of Gavazzeni’s Facebook page.

The article also cited a statement by Gianni Tognoni, secretary of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT), regarding Italian citizens going to the former Yugoslavia to witness and take part in the conflict. (The PPT is an international, independent civil society tribunal founded in 1979 in Rome, Italy, designed to investigate and rule on serious violations of human rights and peoples’ rights.)

Adding to the growing evidence of “sniper tourists” was an American firefighter, John Jordan, who had volunteered in the besieged city during the war. He later testified in 2007 at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague that he saw people who, despite accompanying Bosnian Serb soldiers, were not professionals (they were carrying weapons that were not suited to armed conflict, but rather to a hunting expedition). Jordan’s comments came during the trial of General Dragomir Milosevic, commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska, who was later convicted of war crimes, including conducting a campaign of sniping and shelling against civilians in Sarajevo.

The topic, however, went largely silent until gaining new life when, in 2022, director Miran Zupanic premiered the documentary Sarajevo Safari at the Al Jazeera Balkans DOC Film Festival. Alternating between archival footage and eyewitness accounts, the documentary revealed the horrors of the siege and its lasting impact on Sarajevo and its people. It also included a key interview with Edin Subasic, a former intelligence agent of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and one of the first people to disclose concrete facts about the “safaris.” 

In a later interview for Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, Subasic said that he first became aware of what was happening when he had to analyze the outcome of an interrogation of a Serbian prisoner who had volunteered during the war. When asked how he arrived at the front, the prisoner said he had traveled by bus, together with other Serbs and a group of foreigners who carried expensive hunting gear but were not part of a military organization. They were there because they had paid to shoot people in the city, one of the snipers had allegedly said to the prisoner. 

Zupanic’s documentary eventually caught the attention of journalist Gavazzeni. “In 2023, I learned that … Zupanic had made the documentary Sarajevo Safari,” Gavazzeni told Transitions, “but at that time the documentary wasn’t available to the general public … So, I wrote to him saying that I had been impressed by his research and that I wanted to understand more.” Following that request, Gavazzeni was granted access to the documentary, which subsequently prompted his own investigation, the criminal complaint, and the book.

Siege of Sarajevo

The siege of Sarajevo began on 6 April 1992, the same day the European Community recognized the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As tensions escalated, many Bosnian Serbs left the city, while units of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), later reorganized as the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), together with Bosnian Serb forces, took up positions in the hills surrounding the Bosnian capital.

What many expected would be a rapid capture of Sarajevo instead became the longest siege of a capital city in modern history. The siege lasted 1,425 days, ending on 29 February 1996 following the withdrawal of Bosnian Serb forces under the Dayton Peace Agreement.

Throughout those years, the city – and especially its civilian population – was the primary target.

On average, 329 shells fell on Sarajevo every day, and it is estimated that more than 50,000 tons of artillery shells were fired during the siege.

The bombardment and sniper campaign claimed the lives of 11,541 people and wounded more than 56,000. Among the dead were 1,601 children. Men, women, children, and the elderly all became victims of systematic attacks on civilians. Civilians of all ages and backgrounds were killed or wounded as indiscriminate shelling and sniper fire were used to terrorize the city’s population.

Snipers were among the most feared aspects of daily life under siege because of the seemingly random way they targeted civilians crossing streets, waiting for public transport, or carrying out everyday activities. The infamous “Sniper Alley” became a symbol of the constant danger facing Sarajevo’s residents. 

Entering “Sniper Alley.” Photo by Ludovic Hirlimann/Creative Commons.

In an interview, Gavazzeni outlined the typical profile of a sniper tourist, describing him as “a rich entrepreneur from the north of Italy, well-established in his social circle. The common trait among all these individuals is that they are gun enthusiasts; they frequent shooting ranges and hunting clubs, and they also have a passion for hunting. Some have even been to Africa on safaris – which, as you know, are quite expensive – and that is the kind of sniper we’re talking about.”

According to Gavazzeni, the meeting point was the northern Italian city of Trieste. Here, the suspects would meet and travel to Belgrade, a city that served as the transit hub where foreign participants met their military handlers. Finally, the soldiers would accompany them to the hills surrounding Sarajevo.

In Zupanic’s documentary, an anonymous source revealed that, besides paying army members to walk them to the shooting positions, a price list, just like those for sport hunting, existed. The list showed how much snipers had to pay to kill a woman, a man, a soldier, or a child.

A Larger Conspiracy

Subasic’s statements also underscored the likelihood that the safaris could never have taken place without the permission of the Bosnian Serb authorities, as well as some kind of high-level, cross-border network – a theory that Gavazzeni also supports. One of his sources, the journalist says, mentioned the existence of international organizations with their headquarters in Western European countries, part of “large security firms, which realized back then that there was a business opportunity.” These firms were almost certainly linked to the world of contractors, with their headquarters in London, he added, saying that an organization was formed to fill the “gap,” in “that gray area between the legal entity – the security firm – and the more shady companies that supply contractors.”

The allegations of the Bosnian Serb wartime leadership’s role in sniper tourism might explain the reactions of Zeljka Cvijanovic, the former prime minister of Republika Srpska. She claimed that Zupanic’s documentary was just an attempt to portray events from the past in different ways, falsifying the actions of the Republika Srpska. And East Sarajevo’s mayor, Ljubisa Cosic, at the time called the documentary another “Satanization of Serbs.” 

However, this isn’t the first time Zupanic’s filmography addressed issues of systemic human-rights violations in the region. His 2007 documentary, Children from Petricek Hill, recounts the Yugoslav communist regime’s imprisonment of  hundreds of anti-communist civilians at the Teharje concentration camp near Celje, Slovenia. The authorities then separated over 90 young children from their parents, sending the children to the Petricek camp while most of their parents were executed without trial.  

Reaction from the Ground

“Sarajevo is enthusiastic because for more than 30 years they’ve been told that this was an urban legend and that they were inventing everything,” Gavazzeni said. 

Maida Muminovic, the executive director of Mediacentar, a local media development organization, agreed, saying that the recent investigations “hold a lot of significance, even though so many years have passed.” She said that the local media have been following developments closely and some politicians have also called attention to the inquiries, adding that the foreign media had done an especially good job of keeping the issue in the headlines. 

“The topic of these safari sniper trips to Sarajevo has been quite re-traumatizing for a lot of people, because it brings back a lot of very difficult memories,” Muminovic said, mentioning what she and her family had endured.

A view showing the positions of Bosnian Serb artillery and snipers during the Siege of Sarajevo. Photo by Erlend Bjortvedt via Creative Commons.

During the war, a sniper from up in the hills above Sarajevo shot at her, her sister, and her mother. “It was a really horrifying experience. We were running, and then sitting hidden for a while. We could see people from the building next door who were sheltered by the building, and they were rooting for us, kind of telling us ‘stop, lay low,’ and things like that,” she said. 

“To learn that people were actually coming from outside, not even related to this crazy exhibition of violence that happened in Bosnia – toward people in Sarajevo – is absolutely mind-blowing. To be able to come just to shoot people for the sake of sheer, I don’t know, pleasure is despicable. I don’t even have words for that.”

Muminovic is, however, doubtful that the culprits will end up being punished for their crimes.

“I don’t have a lot of faith that these people will face justice, but I get a lot of satisfaction from knowing that they’re being exposed for what they have done – for what they were capable of – and this is what, for the time being, gives me some kind of peace of mind.”

Laura Savoini recently finished her time as an editorial intern at Transitions. She is studying for an Erasmus Mundus master’s degree in journalism. Jeremy Druker provided reporting from Sarajevo.