Probe finds wealthy foreigners paid to shoot Sarajevo civilians
New details link Milan clinic owner, Italian gun-enthusiasts, and foreign nationals from the US, Russia, Canada, and other countries to “sniper tourism” during Bosnian war
SARAJEVO, Bosnia/Herzegovina (MNTV) — Italian authorities have intensified a landmark war-crimes investigation into allegations that affluent Europeans and other foreign nationals travelled to Bosnia during the 1992–1995 siege of Sarajevo to pay Bosnian Serb forces for the chance to shoot at civilians from sniper positions overlooking the besieged city.
The expanding probe, led by Milan prosecutors, is now anchored in new documentary evidence, testimonies, and intelligence documents that identify several individuals and nationalities suspected of participating in what witnesses have described as “human safaris.”
The case emerged from a detailed complaint submitted to Milan’s Public Prosecutor’s Office by Italian journalist and writer Ezio Gavazzeni, former magistrate Guido Salvini, and lawyer Nicola Brigida.
Their filing draws on findings from the Slovenian documentary Sarajevo Safari and additional evidence collected through months of research, interviews, and archival retrieval.
Prosecutors are examining whether wealthy civilians — primarily from Italy but also from North America and Russia — paid Bosnian Serb fighters to position them in sniper nests used during the city’s siege.
Among the potentially implicated Italians, investigators are reviewing intelligence files referencing the owner of a private plastic surgery clinic in Milan, described as a firearm passionate with connections to intermediaries operating between Italy and Serbia.
Authorities are also examining reports that groups of affluent men from Milan, Turin, and Trieste — including entrepreneurs and professionals — allegedly travelled to Serbia on weekends during the war and were escorted into Serb-held positions around Sarajevo.
While Italian prosecutors have kept most names confidential pending further verification, the complaint and supporting materials identify foreign nationals whose involvement has been publicly documented.
Among the most prominently cited is Eduard Limonov, the Russian nationalist writer and politician who was filmed in 1992 firing a machine gun toward Sarajevo while standing beside Radovan Karadžić, the wartime Bosnian Serb leader.
In another case, John Jordan, a former United States Marine, testified before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in 2007 that he witnessed “tourist shooters” being guided by Serb fighters and carrying weapons associated more with sport hunting than urban warfare.
Other accounts referenced in the complaint indicate participation by individuals from Canada and several unspecified western countries.
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