Children, the elderly, and pregnant women became the preferred target of tourist groups, mostly wealthy and influential Europeans. who paid huge sums of money to have them shot with rifles from the hills surrounding Sarajevo, the city besieged during the Balkan War between 1992 and 1996The Milan prosecutor's office opened an investigation in November and on Monday summoned the first Italian suspect in these "human safaris" to testify. He denied any involvement.

It is often said that humans are capable of both the best and the worst. The human condition is endowed with the capacity to express and act in many forms of kindness, giving rise to displays of affection, empathy, and solidarity. Expressions of evil are the other side of the coin: wars, violence, xenophobia, sadism... Examples of cruelty are almost endless, with unjustifiable and difficult-to-count current manifestations. The systematic genocide practiced by Israel in Palestine is the most prominent example right now, but so too is the type of warfare waged by Putin's Russia in Ukraine, Trump's degrading treatment of immigrants in America, Mazón's excuses as a deadbeat in Valencia, or the abandonment of the elderly in Madrid's nursing homes. We are not talking about mistakes or unforeseen circumstances, nor about collateral damage, but about the behavior of people who are unconcerned about the suffering and death of others or who, as in the Israeli case, even seem to openly enjoy it. Entire groups are dehumanized and subjected to extreme violence until they are annihilated, in an industrial and organized manner. Human groups stripped of their rights and their status as subjects, mere objects to be destroyed.

The Milan Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation to verify whether it is true that Italian citizens and citizens of other nationalities paid to murder civilians for pleasure during the Bosnian War. This macabre tourism, which has been aptly defined as "human safaris", It consisted of paying a sum of money that could range from 80,000 to 100,000 euros to travel to besieged Sarajevo in 1992 on a trip organized specifically for the purpose of killing people. The price varied depending on the murder. The most expensive targets were children. The most defenseless. The most innocent. The "safari" also included, in addition to any type of adult, pregnant women. Another prized target. This savage practice was denounced in a 2022 documentary by the Slovenian Miran Zupanic, titled Sarajevo Safari. Now, based on statements from a former Bosnian army general and former intelligence agent who spoke with an Italian journalist, the prosecution has launched an investigation to determine if these events are true and to convict the perpetrators for crimes that, in principle, have not yet expired.

Thirty 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'.

Born in Bosnia to Croats, the writer Ivo Andric died in Serbia, where he was buried. He wrote in Serbo-Croatian and considered himself Yugoslav. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature, and many people say he was one of the great storytellers of a state that no longer exists: Yugoslavia. It's true that Yugoslavia no longer exists and that today it's difficult to find people who speak Serbo-Croatian, but we must bear in mind that his stories are immortal. He used to write stories of the past, from the years of Ottoman rule, and he remains a good travel companion through the Balkans, regardless of flags and borders. A land that seems impossible to unite. He believed it could be done, perhaps that's why in his great book he speaks of a bridge.