Italy opens investigation into alleged crimes in Bosnia

Photo: Ron Haviv, photo editor: Dastan Shanay

Prosecutors in Milan have launched an investigation into allegations that Italian citizens may have travelled to Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early 1990s to participate in so-called «sniper safaris,» in which foreigners allegedly shot at unarmed people in Sarajevo, according to the BBC.

The complaint was filed by Ezio Gavazzeni, an Italian journalist and novelist well known for his reporting on the mafia. In his report submitted to Milan’s counter-terrorism prosecutor Alessandro Gobbis, Gavazzeni claimed that some Italians and other foreigners passionate about light arms sought the opportunity to shoot at people — including men, women and children — during the four-year siege of Sarajevo.

At the time, more than 11,000 people were killed, marking one of the most brutal chapters of the Balkan wars.

Although reports of «human hunters» have surfaced over the years, Gavazzeni has obtained testimony from a Bosnian military intelligence officer as well as a report by former Sarajevo mayor Benjamina Karic.

However, some former British military personnel who were stationed in Sarajevo at the time have dismissed the accounts of sniper safaris as an urban myth, saying they never witnessed or heard of such a practice.