More than three decades after the siege of Sarajevo, Italian prosecutors have launched an investigation into what may well be one of the darkest and least-known aspects of the Bosnian War, which ran from 1992 until 1995.

The investigation centers on so-called "hobby snipers" or "sniper tourists." These were foreigners who allegedly paid to shoot at civilians in the city of Sarajevo, during what were called "Sarajevo safaris." At the time, Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was besieged by Bosnian Serb forces.

The investigation was initiated after Italian journalist Ezio Gavazzeni and two lawyers handed a 17-page file on the events to Milan's attorney general's office. Gavazzeni first became interested in the topic after reading about it, around 30 years ago. Speaking to Western Balkans cable news channel N1, Gavazzeni explained that a 2022 documentary, "Sarajevo Safari," by Slovenian director Miran Zupanic, had rekindled his interest and sparked his most recent investigations.

Shooters unknown

So far, Italian prosecutors have not named any names — but they could do so soon. Gavazzeni says he was in touch with individuals, including a member of the Bosnian secret service, who talked about Italian "sniper tourists" who came to the mountains around Sarajevo to shoot civilians.

Milan's public prosecutor has apparently passed the investigation on to the anti-terrorism unit of the Italian police's Special Operations Group, or ROS. Italy is the first country to launch such an investigation.

In the film, "Sarajevo Safari," Bosnian military intelligence officer Edin Subasic talks about how foreigners paid to shoot civilians from the mountains surrounding the city. He describes interrogating a captured Serbian in 1993, who confirmed that there were "sniper tourists."

During a nighttime drive through Serb-controlled territory, the Serbian, who was 20 years old at the time and who'd volunteered to fight, said he noticed five foreigners on the same bus who were treated better and who were very well equipped. Three were Italian, the Serb said, including one person from Milan. The other two didn't say where they were from.

Subasic claims these passengers were not paid to fight; they'd paid to shoot civilians on what Subasic describes as a "human safari."

On Bosnian public television, FTV, Subasic said he had more information about the Italians involved.

"The names of some of the perpetrators were found and further investigation could shed light on how the travel, the payment and the return of the participants were organized," Subasic suggested.

FTV also reported on a "special price list" depending on whether the foreign shooters' targets were men, women, pregnant women or children.

Snipers killed up to 350

The inhabitants of Sarajevo used to call them the "weekend Chetniks," referring to Serbians who came to positions surrounding their besieged city on the weekends. "Chetnik" was the catchall description for Serbian ultranationalists.

Dzemil Hodzic was just 10 years old when his brother Amel, then 16, was killed in 1993 by a "snajper," the Bosnian term that borrows from the English word, sniper. Today Hodzic heads "Sniper Alley," a photo project in which he collects images from world-renowned war photographers who were there and uses these to document life under siege.

"We know about mercenaries and volunteers from Russia and Greece, as well as from the Serbian diaspora," Hodzic told DW. "German photojournalist Peter Kullmann has talked about meeting Serbs who came from Germany for just two days to — so they claim — defend their country. They arrived on Fridays after work and returned late on Sundays, so they could be back at work on Monday." 

Nobody knows whether these individuals were paid to do this or whether they paid to be there. But, Hodzic says, they left "a bloody trail on the streets of Sarajevo." During the siege of the city, more than 11,000 people were killed, including around 1,061 children. The Bosnian War claimed over 100,000 lives altogether.

Analyzing casualty figures suggests that snipers were responsible for between 300 and 350 deaths in Sarajevo, Mirsad Tokaca, director of the Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo, told DW.

"Almost all the victims were civilians," he added.

Although there is no precise data on the number of snipers who came from abroad to fight, the involvement of foreign mercenaries in the Bosnian Serb forces is well documented, Tokaca points out. "Our database lists around 300 people from Greece, Russia, Ukraine and other countries who fought in the Serbian army," he says.

Should the existence of "sniper tourists" be verified, the Italian investigations could lead to the first trials of European citizens involved in war crimes outside of formal military organizations — albeit with the knowledge of the Bosnian Serb forces.

This story was translated from German.