A US congresswoman has launched an investigation into allegations that wealthy Americans paid to shoot at civilians during the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said she was in contact with Bosnian and Italian authorities to identify any US citizens involved in what she called 'murder tourism'.
Italian prosecutors are examining claims that far-right extremists and gun enthusiasts from Italy, the US and Russia travelled to Serbia to participate in 'war tourism'. Participants allegedly paid between €80,000 and €100,000 to Serbian forces for the chance to fire at residents in the besieged city. A price list reportedly set higher costs for shooting children.
Witnesses say the trips were organised from Trieste, Italy, with participants positioned in sniper posts overlooking Sarajevo by Bosnian Serb militias loyal to Radovan Karadzic, later convicted of genocide. The siege, from 1992 to 1996, was the longest in modern European history, killing over 11,500 people.
Journalist Ezio Gavazzeni, who brought the case to light, told La Repubblica that 'children cost more' as targets, while elderly people could be killed for free. A former US marine testified in 2007 that 'tourist shooters' came to Sarajevo 'to take pot shots at civilians for their own gratification'.
Luna, an ally of Donald Trump, stated that any Americans involved 'deserve to be charged and prosecuted'. Italian investigators are working to identify participants to charge them with voluntary homicide aggravated by cruelty.
