{"id":225229,"date":"2026-02-16T18:17:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/?p=225229"},"modified":"2026-02-16T18:17:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:17:51","slug":"shocking-new-details-about-sarajevo-safari-dossier-reveals-hundreds-of-war-tourists-and-child-hunting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/shocking-new-details-about-sarajevo-safari-dossier-reveals-hundreds-of-war-tourists-and-child-hunting\/","title":{"rendered":"Shocking new details about \u2018Sarajevo Safari\u2019: Dossier reveals hundreds of \u2018war tourists\u2019 and child hunting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Italy opens, after 30 years, an investigation into \u2018sniper tourists\u2019, persons who allegedly paid to kill civilians in Sarajevo during the war<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Three decades after the end of the Bosnian war, Italy has opened an unprecedented investigation. Milanese prosecutors are investigating suspicions that Italian citizens and other foreigners paid Serbian soldiers to help them get to Sarajevo, where, amid the chaos caused by the war, they literally hunted down innocent civilians, including children and pregnant women, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/nov\/11\/milan-prosecutors-investigate-alleged-sniper-tourism-during-bosnian-war\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Guardian<\/em><\/a> notes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-225230\" src=\"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sarajevo-safari-1.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sarajevo-safari-1.webp 640w, https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sarajevo-safari-1-300x188.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After 30 years, Italian justice is reopening one of the darkest chapters of the Bosnian war. Prosecutors in Milan have launched an official investigation into the alleged phenomenon of \u201c<em>sniper tourists<\/em>\u201d during the siege of Sarajevo (1992-1996).<\/p>\n<p>Investigators started to gather evidence that groups of Italians and citizens from other Western countries paid Bosnian Serb soldiers to take them to firing positions on the hills surrounding the Bosnian capital, from where they could shoot civilians in the city.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation is being coordinated by prosecutor Alessandro Gobbi, and the charges are extremely serious: voluntary murder aggravated by cruelty, a crime without statute of limitations, according to international law on war crimes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sarajevo was under siege for 1,425 days<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The siege of Sarajevo lasted 1,425 days, between 1992 and 1996. During this period, everyday life had become a veritable game of Russian roulette, with people forced to cross the streets in a hurry, hiding behind cars, while bullets ricocheted off buildings, hoping to escape with their lives. On the main boulevard, Mesa Selimovic, an unavoidable road, being the only connection to the airport, death could come from any direction, so much so that the locals called it \u201c<em>Sniper Alley<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>The snipers were probably the most feared element of the siege, because they fired randomly, like in a video game or on a safari<\/em>,\u201d according to media reports.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the term \u2018sniper tourists\u2019 originated<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to the investigation, during the conflict there were groups of wealthy foreigners, of various nationalities (Italians, Germans, French or British), who paid considerable sums to be taken to the hills surrounding the city and shoot at civilians. These persons were later nicknamed \u201c<em>sniper tourists<\/em>\u201d, a term that began circulating in the press in the 1990s, but which has never been officially investigated until now.<\/p>\n<p>The army that allegedly facilitated such activities was led by Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader sentenced in 2016 to life imprisonment for genocide and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>An Italian writer filed a complaint after years of collecting evidence<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The investigation was launched by Ezio Gavazzeni, an Italian writer who has been collecting testimonies and documents related to the subject for the past few years. He filed an official complaint with the Milan Prosecutor&#8217;s Office, supported by a report submitted by the former mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karic.<\/p>\n<p>Ezio Gavazzeni said he first heard about the alleged \u201c<em>sniper tourism<\/em>\u201d from articles published in the Italian press in the mid-1990s. However, it was only after watching the documentary <em>Sarajevo Safari<\/em> (2022), made by Slovenian director Miran Zupanic, that he decided to investigate in depth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSarajevo Safari<em> was the starting point. I began a correspondence with the director and, from there, I expanded my research until I had gathered enough material to present to prosecutors in Milan<\/em>,\u201d the writer explained.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-225233\" src=\"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sarajevo-safari-2-e1771265810608.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sarajevo-safari-2-e1771265810608.jpg 657w, https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sarajevo-safari-2-e1771265810608-300x189.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The documentary that reopened the subject<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The film <em>Sarajevo Safari<\/em>, which has been shown at several European festivals, features shocking interviews with a former Serbian soldier and a contractor who claim that groups of Western citizens were brought to the front to \u201c<em>hunt<\/em>\u201d civilians. The two witnesses claim that the \u201c<em>visitors<\/em>\u201d paid large sums of money for a real war experience, an accusation vehemently denied by Serbian veterans.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cA lot of Italians were involved\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to Ezio Gavazzeni, there are indications that \u201c<em>many, many Italians<\/em>\u201d participated in these actions, although he did not provide an exact figure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>There were Germans, French, English, people from all Western countries who paid large sums of money to be taken there to shoot civilians. (&#8230;) There were no political or religious motivations. They were rich people, passionate about weapons, who were looking for sensations, just like they go on safari in Africa<\/em>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The writer also claimed that some of the Italian citizens were meeting in Trieste, from where they were leaving for Belgrade, and were later taken over by Bosnian Serb soldiers and transported to the firing positions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>There was a traffic of war tourists who went there to shoot people<\/em>,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n<p>Ezio Gavazzeni states that he has managed to identify several of the Italian citizens allegedly involved, who are to be questioned by prosecutors in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p>The purpose of the investigation is to establish the identity of all those involved, the route of the money, and how these \u201ctrips\u201d were logistically organized.<\/p>\n<p>Italian prosecutors are collaborating with the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to verify the information and establish possible links to war crimes files already in the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague.<\/p>\n<p>Former Sarajevo police chief Zlatko Mileti\u0107 told regional station <em>N1<\/em>: \u201c<em>The foreign snipers were well camouflaged behind concrete walls and it was difficult to neutralize them. They killed dozens of children and women<\/em>.\u201d At the time, Mileti\u0107 led a Bosnian \u201canti-sniper\u201d team and is now a member of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina.<\/p>\n<p>The foreign \u2018sniper tourists\u2019 paid Bosnian Serbs the equivalent of 80,000 to 100,000 euros to shoot civilians during the siege. After the macabre \u201c<em>safaris<\/em>\u201d, the snipers held parties with roast pork and cognac.<\/p>\n<p>A former Bosnian Serb soldier, Aleskandar Li\u010danin, told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/world\/europe\/article\/wealthy-foreigners-paid-for-chance-to-shoot-civilians-in-sarajevo-zrljbb27z?msockid=2757173e74536e1802e201a375ce6f54\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Times<\/em><\/a><em>: <\/em>\u201c<em>They would go to a restaurant around 6-7pm and stay there until 5am, singing and laughing<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Croatian investigative journalist Domagoj Margetic noted that the price paid by foreigners for killing a civilian was higher for pregnant women or children. In total, more than 10,000 people were killed in Sarajevo, due to bombings and snipers, during the longest siege of a capital city in modern history.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>yogaesoteric<br \/>\nFebruary 16, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Italy opens, after 30 years, an investigation into \u2018sniper tourists\u2019, persons who allegedly paid to kill civilians in Sarajevo during the war Three decades after the end of the Bosnian war, Italy has opened an unprecedented investigation. Milanese prosecutors are investigating suspicions that Italian citizens and other foreigners paid Serbian soldiers to help them get [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1093],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-censored-news-social-5127-en-censored-sensational-news-3480-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225236,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225229\/revisions\/225236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}