Suspected ‘Sarajevo human safari’ participants investigated for ‘paying to shoot humans’

Bosnian Serb snipers tortured civilians while sniping at them daily in the 1990s (Picture: AFP)

Prosecutors in Croatia have opened an investigation looking at two tourists who are accused of taking part in a ‘human safari’ which killed innocent Bosnians.

During the Siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s,European tourists were accused of paying to shoot at civilians in the war-torn city.

The country’s justice ministry said: ‘An investigation was opened on April 25 against an Austrian citizen and another as-yet-unidentified individual in connection with possible participation in so-called “sniper tours” in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War.’

In November,officials in Milan opened an investigation in which two Italian tourists were questioned over their involvement in the sickening ‘safari’.

Alma Zadic,a Bosnian-born member of the Austrian Green Party and the former justice minister,said of the new allegations: ‘The idea that people may have paid money to deliberately shoot at civilians — even children — is almost unimaginable in its cruelty.

‘Such acts represent a level of contempt for humanity that leaves one speechless. The victims and their relatives have a right to truth,justice and clarification.’

Sign up for all of the latest stories

Start your day informed with Metro's News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.The investigation comes after a book published last month by Croatian journalist Domagoj Margetic claimed an Austrian was involved in the shootings,possibly an aristocrat.The book,Pay And Shoot,contains an interview with ‘Jovan’,a former Bosnian Serb army major.The book’s author told The Times: ‘He said an Austrian who came in late 1992 and in 1993 was nicknamed “Grof” by the Serbs,which means “Count” in Serbo-Croatian.‘I have also been told that Serbian soldiers at Sarajevo checkpoints remember hunters showing Austrian passports.’Prosecutors in Italy are already investigating some of their citizens (Picture: AP)Allegations about the snipers emerged following the release of the 2022 documentary Sarajevo Safari by Miran Zupanic.Italian,Croatian,British,French,Spanish,Russian and German nationals have been accused of attending the ‘tours’,allegedly organised by Serbs and Croats.The shooting in the city was so bad that two main streets,Ulica Zmaja od Bosne and Meša Selimović Boulevard,were dubbed ‘sniper alley’.Citizens had to run to and from grocery stores,work and home while dodging bullets (Picture: AFP)During the siege,Sarajevo’s electric,gas and water supplies were cut off – leaving those within the city with no access to vital infrastructure.Former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and the commander of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Sarajevo-Romanija Corps,Stanislav Galic,were both found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Hague over the attack.Both were eventually handed sentences of life imprisonment. Karadzic is serving his sentence in the UK,while Galic was taken to Germany.The siege ended in 1995,leaving 13,952 people dead. 5,434 of these casualties were civilians. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at .For more stories like this,check our news page.