Sarajevo joins criminal proceedings in Milan over war 'sniper tourists'

The Sarajevo City Council gave its consent on January 28th for the City of Sarajevo to officially join the criminal proceedings being conducted before the judicial authorities in Milan, Italy, against persons suspected of having fired sniper fire at citizens of Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In early November last year, Italian media reported that the Milan Prosecutor’s Office had launched an investigation into the so-called “sniper tourists.” According to a criminal complaint filed by Italian writer and journalist Ezio Gavazzeni, these individuals paid large sums of money to go to the positions of the Army of Republika Srpska around besieged Sarajevo and, mainly “for fun,” would shoot with snipers and kill civilians.

Radio Free Europe has made several attempts to interview Gavazzeni, but he has indicated through intermediaries that he does not wish to speak on the matter. In the meantime, he held a press conference in Milan, where he announced that he will publish a book dedicated to the phenomenon of “sniper tourists” in February.

Gavazzeni said he first encountered allegations of foreigners arriving on the front lines around Sarajevo in 1995, in an article published in the newspaper Corriere della Sera. After that, he started writing a thriller novel on the subject, but soon realized that he had too little information and abandoned the project. This, he said, lasted until 2022, when he saw the documentary “Sarajevo Safari” by Slovenian director Miran Županić, which brought the issue back to his attention.

The Milan prosecutor's office is expected to inform the public about the results of the investigation in March 2026. If an indictment is filed and the suspects' guilt is proven, this would be the first case in Europe where individuals will answer in court for the killing of civilians by snipers during the siege of Sarajevo.

Meanwhile, justice authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina have announced that they are verifying these claims, but so far no sniper has been prosecuted for the killing of civilians in Sarajevo, including the killings of children.

For almost the entire duration of the war, from 1992 to the end of 1995, foreign journalists and photojournalists were occasionally able to stay in Serbian positions around Sarajevo. Radio Free Europe contacted several of them, but none could confirm that they had ever seen foreigners paid to come and shoot at civilians.

According to data from victims' associations and judgments from international courts, during the nearly four years of the siege of Sarajevo, every tenth child killed in the city was shot by a sniper's bullet, while more than 14.000 children were injured.

However, to date, no sniper has been held accountable on the basis of personal responsibility – neither before domestic nor international courts.

The International Tribunal in The Hague, in its verdicts against top officials of Republika Srpska, has found that the sniper campaign during the siege of Sarajevo had a clear purpose: "to terrorize the civilians of Sarajevo."

The Geo Post