Tourists accused of paying thousands for ‘human safari trip’ allegedly competed to kill ‘most beautiful women’
Ben Williams
Featured Image Credit: GEORGES GOBET/Contributor/Getty Images
More disturbing allegations have emerged around so-called ‘human safari’ trips during the siege of Sarajevo, where wealthy tourists are accused of paying huge sums of money to shoot civilians.
The claims centre on the Bosnian capital during the war in the 1990s, when more than 10,000 people were killed by snipers and shelling between 1992 and 1996.
For years, reports have alleged that foreign gun enthusiasts travelled to the city during the siege and paid Bosnian Serb forces to fire at innocent people from positions in the hills around Sarajevo.
The public prosecutor’s office in Milan previously opened an investigation into the allegations after journalist Ezio Gavazzeni filed a legal complaint. He claimed tourists from Italy and other western countries paid to be taken to Sarajevo in what has been described as ‘sniper tourism’.
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Now, further claims from Croatian journalist Domagoj Margetic’s book Pay and Shoot allege that some of those involved competed over their victims.
Margetic cited documents said to have been handed over by Bosnian intelligence officer Nedzad Ugljen, who was killed in 1996.
Talking to The Times, Margetic said: “Ugljen also wrote the foreigners competed to see who could shoot the most beautiful women.”
According to the book’s claims, wealthy foreigners allegedly paid different prices depending on who they wanted to target.
It is claimed 80,000 Deutsche marks was charged to shoot middle-aged women, while the price allegedly rose to 95,000 marks for young women and 110,000 marks for pregnant women.
The latest allegations follow earlier claims made by Gavazzeni, who said he first became aware of the alleged ‘sniper tourists’ through Italian press reports in the 1990s.
As reported by The Guardian, he later watched the 2022 documentary Sarajevo Safari, directed by Miran Zupanič, which prompted him to investigate further.
He claimed: “There were no political or religious motivations. They were rich people who went there for fun and personal satisfaction. We are talking about people who love guns who perhaps go to shooting ranges or on safari in Africa.”
The journalist also alleged Italian suspects would meet in Trieste before travelling to Belgrade, where they would then be accompanied by Bosnian Serb soldiers to Sarajevo’s hills.
He said: “There was a traffic of war tourists who went to there to shoot people. I call it an indifference towards evil.”
Margetic’s book also includes the claim that a European royal was among the alleged shooters.
Ugljen reportedly said: “Many of them told me a European royal was among the shooters. He would arrive by helicopter, stay in Vogosca near Sarajevo and wanted to shoot at children.”
Margetic also claimed the operation involved security services, saying: “It was an activity handled by the security services because foreigners were involved.”