MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Italy: Prosecutors launch probe into “human safari” allegations

Brigida has investigated Argentina's “death flights” among other internationally relevant cases. Photo: AFP

The Milan Public Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into claims that wealthy Italian citizens paid fees to act as “weekend snipers,” targeting and shooting civilians besieged in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War (1992-1996). The investigation has been bolstered by testimony from former Bosnian Army Brigadier General -and intelligence agent- Edin Subasic.

“We have presented documentation full of clues that deserve to be investigated further, and which we have suggested to the judiciary,” stated attorney Nicola Brigida, one of the lawyers who drafted the complaint. “We firmly believe they can lead to the identification of at least some of those responsible.”

Subasic claims that in 1993, Bosnian intelligence informed their Italian counterparts (then known as SISMI) about the organized “human safaris.” The route for these tours involved flying from the Italian city of Trieste to Belgrade, to then traveling by land to Sarajevo.

Bosnian authorities claimed they were never given the names of the organizers or the “hunters,” raising the critical question of whether documentation regarding the alleged crimes exists in reserved Italian state archives.

Brigida, who has extensive experience in high-profile international cases —including those involving disappeared Italian citizens during dictatorships in Argentina and Chile, and victims of Italy’s “Years of Lead”— is working alongside former magistrate Guido Salvini. Salvini is a renowned investigator of Italian neofascist terrorism and the secret Gladio network.

The lawyers prepared the 17-page filing after receiving material compiled by journalist and writer Ezio Gavazzeni, who spent years investigating the matter. Brigida noted that after working on cases like the “death flights” in Argentina, this case is defined by a common profile among the perpetrators: “Evil people, perhaps also ideologically motivated, passionate about weapons, who used to shoot at shooting ranges.” Brigida also noted that the crime has not been reached by Italy’s statute of limitations. The crime currently being considered by Milan prosecutors is multiple homicide with aggravating circumstances—specifically, “despicable motives” and “cruelty.”

Writer and activist Adriano Sofri, who reported from Sarajevo during the war, published an article on Wednesday asserting that the phenomenon was “universally known” and that the participants were “enthusiastic and numerous.” Sofri reproduced excerpts from his own 1995 dispatches, which referenced the open presence of “Chetnik snipers [Serbian ultranationalist militia] and international hunting participation.” He cited a case where a Japanese volunteer told Bosnian Serb television he went to shoot in Sarajevo due to “disappointment in love.”

The Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office is also reportedly acquiring documents from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, as various witness statements reference these “war tourists.”

“The most morbid aspect of the Sarajevo safari was that there was a fee that weekend hunters had to pay to members of the Army of Republika Srpska [Bosnian Serb] in Grbavica to shoot civilians,” Subasic stated. He specified that the victims included a range of people under siege: “adults, women, children, pregnant women, and soldiers.”

Sarajevo was under constant bombardment and sniper fire from Bosnian Serb positions throughout the siege, which ultimately claimed over 10,000 lives before officially ending in 1996.

Subasic stated that Bosnian courts had previously opened a case on the matter following a complaint by Benjamina Karic, the former Mayor of Sarajevo. He expressed hope that the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office will see the case through, noting that while some participants may have died, those who were younger “are still within the reach of justice.”