Serbian President Implicated in Sarajevo 'Human Safari' Allegations
The disturbing scandal surrounding alleged 'human safaris' during the brutal siege of Sarajevo has intensified dramatically with new claims implicating Serbia's current president, Aleksandar Vučić. Fresh allegations suggest he personally participated in grotesque hunting expeditions where wealthy foreign tourists paid to shoot unarmed civilians with sniper rifles during the four-year Bosnian Serb siege of the city in the 1990s.
Mounting Evidence and International Investigations
Prosecutors in Milan have officially opened an investigation into Italian tourists who allegedly paid between £70,000 and £88,000 to participate in the violence, with higher prices charged for targeting children. Between 1992 and 1996, more than 10,000 people were killed in Sarajevo by shelling and sniper fire in the longest siege of a capital city in modern warfare history.
Croatian investigative journalist Domagoj Margetic has written to Milan prosecutors alleging that Mr Vučić both participated in and facilitated sniper tourism in Sarajevo. The journalist cites a 1993 video which he claims shows Mr Vučić carrying a sniper rifle alongside other armed men at a Jewish cemetery on a hillside overlooking Sarajevo - a known frontline position for Serbian snipers.
The Serbian President denies carrying a weapon in the footage, claiming the object was merely an umbrella. He maintains he was working as a journalist in Pale, 11 miles east of the city, during the early 1990s, stating: "I didn't shoot, but I was at Pale, doing my job."
Historical Context and Witness Testimonies
Mr Margetic's letter presents multiple pieces of evidence, including a purported 1994 interview with Serbian magazine Duga where Mr Vučić allegedly said: "When the war in Bosnia began, I went to Serbian Sarajevo and signed up as a volunteer." The journalist also cites testimony from Vojislav Seselj, founder of the hard-right Serbian Radical Party, who testified in The Hague during the defence of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic in 2013 that Mr Vučić was part of the military detachment in Sarajevo.
Bosnia's defence minister Zukan Helez has reinforced these allegations, claiming that members of the VRS told him they witnessed Mr Vučić firing on Sarajevo residents from the Jewish cemetery. "His excuse that in the footage he was holding an umbrella and not a rifle is a blatant lie," Mr Helez told The Sarajevo Times.
The concept of 'sniper tourism' gained credibility through previous testimony at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Former US Marine John Jordan testified in 2007 about witnessing armed foreigners in Sarajevo who didn't appear to be local fighters, describing their weapons as more suited to "hunting boar in the Black Forest than urban combat in the Balkans."
Documentary Evidence and International Response
Slovenian director Miran Zupanič's 2022 documentary 'Sarajevo Safari' gathered compelling testimony from witnesses, including an anonymous former intelligence officer who claimed to have witnessed seven such 'safaris'. The witness described participants from the "upper echelons" who sought the ultimate thrill of shooting civilians, noting that "the price was higher for a child."
With the launch of the Italian investigation, triggered by journalist Ezio Gavazzeni's legal complaint, the international community is taking action. US congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna has announced she's opened an investigation into the alleged 'murder tourism', writing: "Paying money to shoot civilians - and even worse to shoot children - is a level of evil our country cannot and will not tolerate."
Serbian lawyer Čedomir Stojković is pressuring magistrates in Belgrade to launch their own investigation, condemning Serbian authorities for not probing the allegations despite "increasingly intense evidence." As the Milan investigation progresses, more countries are expected to follow suit in uncovering the truth about one of the most disturbing chapters of the Balkan conflict.
