BRITS were among “sniper tourists” who apparently paid £70k to go on sick human-hunting weekend trips, the journalist behind the probe has claimed.
Disturbing claims have emerged that wealthy foreigners paid Bosnian Serb forces for access to Sarajevo during the early ’90s siege, so they could pick off innocent civilians for fun – with Italian prosecutors now investigating.
The shocking findings of Milan-based investigative journalist Ezio Gavazzeni made global headlines as the horror of the allegations was digested.
He first presented them to the police in Milan, which sparked the official investigation.
The blood-sport tourists were previously described as wealthy “far-right” figures and gun enthusiasts mainly from Italy.
But now, Gavazzeni has claimed there were Brits among them.
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He told The World: “The clients came from many countries: they were Italian, German, French, English, Spanish, American, or Canadian.
“Why did no country ever launch an investigation? Maybe because they were powerful, wealthy, and socially influential individuals.”
Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna – a Donald Trump ally – vowed to track down the perpetrators.
The sickening blood-safari weekends are said to have happened during the four-year siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1996.
Visitors would fly into the region and travel to the hills around the city, where they would settle into their rifle nests.
Then, they set their sights on the streets and took out whoever they fancied.
Gavazzeni said: “These people had no pretext: they fired at anyone who appeared in their sights—whether a child, a woman, a man, or an elderly person. With no sense of morality whatsoever.”
There was a premium charged for murdering children, El Pais reported.
More than 10,000 people were killed there between 1992 and 1996 by shelling and sniper fire, in the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare.
Bosnian Serb forces, under the leadership of war criminal Radovan Karadžić, were responsible for most of the slaughter.
Karadžić, 80, was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2016 for genocide and other crimes against humanity.
Sarajevo residents lived in perpetual fear of taking a bullet during those years.
Meša Selimović Boulevard, the main road running into the city, was nicknamed “Sniper Alley” because traversing it was so dangerous.
Allegations first came to light in the 2022 documentary “Sarajevo Safari”, by Slovenian filmmaker Miran Zupanic.
In the movie, he gathered testimonies which built a picture of wealthy tourists visiting the city for blood-sport.
Gavazzeni picked up the work and ultimately took his evidence to the authorities.
Former magistrate Guido Salvini and Benjamina Karic, mayor of Sarajevo from 2021 to 2024, also put their names to the complaint.
The Bosnian Attorney General’s Office apparently shelved a previous investigation into the “sniper tourism” because it was too difficult in a country still scarred by war, Gavazzeni told La Repubblica.
The writer said: “We are talking about wealthy people, with reputations – businessmen – who during the siege of Sarajevo paid to kill unarmed civilians.
“They left Trieste for a manhunt and then returned to their respectable daily lives.”
Lead prosecutor Alessandro Gobbi is understood to have a list of several people who can provide testimony and may be called to give evidence.
Gavazzeni said that there could be up to 100 tourists who took part in the weekend sniper tours.
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“I hope they can locate at least one or two, maybe 10,” he said.
The case mentions a Milanese businessman who owns a private cosmetic surgery clinic, as well as citizens from Turin and Trieste, El Pais reported.
Who is Ezio Gavazzeni?
EZIO Gavazzeni is an Italian author and journalist based in Milan.
He picked up previous work investigating the Sarajevo blood-safaris, and after two years took his findings to the police.
Gavazzeni has published thirteen books, and a number of stories, plays and travel guides since 1998.
He has made a name for himself investigating violent events, including the Mafia massacres of ’92 and the attack on Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981.
Gavazzeni has also received several international literary awards for his fiction.
After the Sarajevo allegations hit headlines around the world, Gavazzeni said: “On the one hand, great satisfaction, because it means that the past two years I devoted to this investigation have borne fruit in a way I could never have imagined.
“I have received calls from all over the world. On the other hand, however, what surprises me is that no one has taken an interest in this issue over the past 30 years..”