Tourists paid Serb militias to ‘shoot Sarajevo civilians’

Prosecutors are examining allegations that Italians, Russians and Americans took part in a ‘sniper safari’ during city siege

- TOM AMBROSE

Rich foreigners paid large sums of money to shoot at terrified civilians during the 1990s siege of Sarajevo, according to extraordinary allegations being investigated by Italian prosecutors.

Prosecutors are examining allegations that far-right extremists and gun enthusiasts from Italy, the United States, Russia and other countries travelled to Bosnia and paid Serbian forces to let them fire at city residents as a form of “war tourism”.

According to La Repubblica, foreigners paid the modern-day equivalent of between €80,000 and €100,000 each to take part, with a “price list” allegedly listing varying rates depending on the target.

“[There was] a price tag for these killings: children cost more, then men, preferably in uniform and armed, women, and finally old people, who could be killed for free,” Ezio Gavazzeni, a journalist, told the Italian newspaper. “They departed Trieste for a manhunt. And then they came home and continued their normal lives. They were respectable in the opinion of those who knew them.”