Sarajevo siege survivors hope for justice as Italy probes alleged 'sniper tourism'

SARAJEVO (Reuters) -The launch of an investigation in Italy into allegations that foreigners paid to shoot at civilians during the siege of Sarajevo three decades ago has raised survivors' hopes that people will be brought to justice.

About 11,000 civilians were killed by shelling and sniper fire from Bosnian Serb army positions on hills around the besieged city during the 1992-95 war that followed Bosnia's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia.

Milan prosecutors opened their investigation, a source said, after local journalist and novelist Ezio Gavazzeni filed a legal complaint over allegations that Italians and other foreigners had paid members of the Bosnian Serb forces to visit to shoot at civilians under what some referred to as "sniper tourism".

Gavazzeni said he had been inspired to look into the allegations after watching a 2022 documentary, "Sarajevo Safari", by Slovenian director Miran Zupanic.

Without providing any firm evidence, Gavazzeni said wealthy foreigners paid large sums of money to take part in the shooting trips. He said the Italians used to meet in the city of Trieste before travelling to Belgrade, where Bosnian Serb soldiers escorted them to the hills overlooking Sarajevo.

OLD WOUNDS REOPENED

Opening an investigation is a formality in Italy when such a legal complaint is filed, and no individual suspects have been named. But some Sarajevo residents welcomed the investigation even though it reopened old wounds.

"I am completely shocked," said Muamer Kalic, a Sarajevo University professor who spent all the war in Sarajevo.  

"These are planetary disasters, and those who admired or financed that should, at the very least, face hanging or life imprisonment."

Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic were jailed for life for war crimes and crimes against humanity, but many Sarajevo residents want others brought to justice.

Former Sarajevo Mayor Benjamina Karic said she hoped news of the Milan prosecutors' investigation would pave the way to Bosnian state prosecutors opening an investigation into former Bosnian Serb army commanders and individuals over the siege.

"As a child who grew up and survived the siege of Sarajevo...I have special emotions about this case and truly want to believe the investigation will be initiated," said Karic.

In a statement to Reuters, the Bosnian state prosecutor's office said it had not been contacted by the Milan prosecutors.

The Milan prosecutors have not commented on the case.

Edin Subasic, a retired Bosnian army intelligence officer who featured in Zupanic's documentary, said he learnt of the allegations that foreigners paid to shoot at civilians in 1993 from the testimony of a captured Bosnian Serb army soldier.

"It attracted our attention because it was extraordinary to have civilians with hunting rifles and highly sophisticated equipment on the battlefield," Subasic told Reuters.

Subasic said Bosnian army intelligence had forwarded the allegations at the time to an Italian military intelligence agency.

(Additional reporting by Crispian Balmer and Emilio Parodi in Rome, Writing by Daria Sito-Sucic, Editing by Timothy Heritage)