Rich, ultras and adrenaline: Italy searches for the participants of the 'human safaris' in Sarajevo

RomeThirty years ago, the Italian Military Intelligence Service (SISMI) discovered something disturbing: hundreds of people were traveling to Sarajevo, the city besieged from 1992 to 1996 during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the aim of murdering civilians, including women and childrenIn perfectly organized groups, war tourists fired rifles in a kind of macabre 'human safari'.

This was the account given by Edin Subasic, a former Bosnian army general and former intelligence agent, who shared the story with Italian journalist and writer Ezio Gavazzeni. According to the former military officer, Italian security services managed to block the trips after learning of their existence.

"The most morbid aspect of the 'Sarajevo safari' was that there was a set fee for how much a weekend hunter had to pay members of the Republika Srpska army [a Serb-majority entity in Bosnia] to shoot civilians: adults, women, children, pregnant women, soldiers," he stated.

Anonymous citizens, many of them Italian, passionate about guns and close to the far right, allegedly paid the equivalent of between 80,000 and 100,000 euros to kill innocent people—the price was higher if they were children—trapped during the near-conviction in 2016 of genocide and crimes against humanity.

What seemed like an urban legend began to intrigue Ezio Gavazzeni to such an extent that he began investigating the case and, together with former magistrate Guido Salvini and lawyer Nicola Brigida, filed a complaint with the Milan Prosecutor's Office, which has led to the opening of an investigation. The hypothesis is multiple homicide with the aggravating factors of abject motives and cruelty, which means these crimes do not have a statute of limitations.

"It is a proven fact that Sarajevo was a city besieged by Serbian troops after the declaration of independence of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which saw thousands of citizens ruthlessly murdered by snipers firing from the hills surrounding the city. The paramilitary troops who were never identified carried out the killings.

The complaint does not include the names of the alleged participants in these manhunts, although its authors claim to have submitted evidence that these events took place, including statements from soldiers and secret service agents.

"I cannot say anything about the alleged perpetrators because there is an ongoing investigation, but I hope that the judiciary will be able to identify someone responsible," says the lawyer, who confirms that former soldier Edin Subasic is among the witnesses. "A respectable person whom I hope the judiciary will soon call to testify," he adds.

Camouflage Hunters

In the 17-page complaint, a witness states that among the participants, who also included Americans, were several Italians. According to the Ansa news agency, the document indicates that "one of the Italian snipers identified in the hills of Sarajevo in 1993, reported to the SISMI (Military Intelligence Service), was from Milan and owned a private clinic specializing in cosmetic surgery." According to the Bosnian ex-soldier, the profile of the Italian snipers was that of highly influential people with substantial financial resources who could afford "an adrenaline-fueled challenge." The tourists traveled on a direct flight from the Italian city of Trieste to Belgrade, and from there were transported by helicopter to the hills overlooking Sarajevo and Mostar. Their passion for hunting served as an alibi, allowing them to arrive as a group without raising suspicion, pretending to be part of an organized hunting trip, which were common in countries like Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania. The complaint includes a report on these "wealthy foreigners engaged in inhumane activities" provided by the former mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karic, who over the years has compiled information to document the alleged trips, which were already exposed in 2022 in the documentary by Slovenian filmmaker Miran Zupa. Sarajevo Safari.