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Italy has launched an investigation into allegations that foreign nationals were paid to shoot civilians during the siege of Zaragoza three decades ago, raising hopes for justice among survivors.
About 11,000 civilians were killed by shelling and sniper fire by Bosnian Serb forces in the hills surrounding the besieged city during the 1992–95 war following Bosnia’s independence from Yugoslavia.
Milan prosecutors launched their own investigation after local journalist and novelist Ezio Gavazeni filed a legal complaint, sources indicated. He alleged that Italians and other foreigners paid Bosnian Serb forces to engage in “sniper tourism”, allowing them to shoot at civilians.
Gavzeni said he was inspired to look into the allegations after watching Slovenian director Miran Zupanic’s 2022 documentary, “Sarajevo Safari.”
Without providing any concrete evidence, Gavzeni said that wealthy foreigners paid large sums of money to take part in the shooting trips. He said the Italians would meet in the city of Trieste before traveling to Belgrade, where Bosnian Serb soldiers would escort them to the hills overlooking Sarajevo.
In Italy, launching an investigation when such a legal complaint is filed is a formality and no individual suspects have been named. But some Zaragoza residents welcomed the investigation, even though it reopened old wounds.
“I’m completely shocked,” said Muammar Kalik, a professor at the University of Zaragoza who spent all of the war in Sarajevo.
“These are planetary disasters, and those who praised or financed them should face at least execution or life imprisonment.”
Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic were sentenced to life in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity, but many Zaragoza residents want others brought to justice.
Benjamina Karić, former mayor of Bosnia, said she hoped news of the Milan prosecutors’ investigation would pave the way for Bosnian state prosecutors to launch investigations into former Bosnian Serb army commanders and individuals over the siege.
Carrick said, “As a child who grew up and survived the siege of Sarajevo…I have special feelings about this case and I really want to believe that an investigation will be launched.”
In a statement to Reuters, the Bosnian state prosecutor’s office said it had not been contacted by Milan prosecutors.
Milan prosecutors have not commented on the case.
Edin Subašić, a retired Bosnian Army intelligence officer who starred in Đupanić’s documentary, said he learned of the allegations that foreigners had paid him to fire on civilians from the testimony of a captured Bosnian Serb Army soldier in 1993.
“It caught our attention because it was extraordinary to have civilians with hunting rifles and highly sophisticated equipment on the battlefield,” Subacic told Reuters.
Subacic said that Bosnian military intelligence had at that time forwarded the allegations to an Italian military intelligence agency.