During the 1992-1996 siege of Sarajevo, snipers positioned by Bosnian Serb forces caused significant civilian casualties, including many children. Official records indicate that 1,601 children were killed during the siege, with at least 534 names catalogued by the Association of Parents of the Murdered Children of Sarajevo. The group’s president, Fikret Grabovica, asserts that children were deliberately targeted, a strategy allegedly intended to demoralize the city's defenders. Many deaths occurred in clusters at various locations when fighting was relatively quiet and children were allowed outside.

The Bosnian Serb forces responsible largely operated under the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the Republika Srpska army, with contributions from volunteers from Serbia and mercenaries from Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and Greece. However, recent claims have surfaced alleging the participation of Western European “weekend sniper” tourists, notably from Italy and possibly Britain, who purportedly paid large sums for the opportunity to hunt human targets.

These allegations, once considered implausible, have gained renewed attention following the publication of an Italian journalist Ezio Gavazzeni’s 2023 book, *I Cecchini del Weekend* (The Weekend Snipers). Gavazzeni claims that hundreds of Western Europeans, mainly Italians, engaged in “human safaris” in Sarajevo, paying up to £300,000 for the experience. He describes an organized network that transported individuals to sniper positions, where they shot civilians alongside Bosnian Serb forces. One figure reportedly spent approximately 340 million lire (about £300,000 today) in a span of six hours shooting civilians. Gavazzeni has submitted a 17-page complaint to Italian prosecutors, who opened an investigation in November 2023.

Eyewitness testimony from individuals such as Aleksandar Licanin, a former Serbian tank volunteer, describes well-dressed foreigners shooting from vantage points like the Old Jewish Cemetery on Mount Trebevic, a strategic location above Sarajevo used to target civilians. Licanin also recounted lavish post-shooting celebrations involving meat and alcohol, suggesting the tourists were treated as honored guests.

Former Bosnian intelligence officer Edin Subasic reported detaining a young Serbian volunteer who confirmed the presence of Italian and other foreign participants in the fighting, who paid their way to be there. Subasic and others claim that Italy’s military intelligence agency, SISMI, had knowledge of the safaris at the time but did not take action, though details remain unclear. Conversely, former CIA officer Douglas H Wise, who served in Sarajevo during the war, denied any awareness of foreign “tourist” snipers, and no declassified CIA documents corroborate such findings.

Skepticism remains regarding the scale and organization of these alleged safaris. Nenad Fiser, a former Bosnian intelligence analyst, described the concept as akin to science fiction, arguing that such an elaborate operation would have been highly conspicuous. British photographer Gary Knight questioned the notion that volunteers would have needed to pay large sums, noting that anyone wishing to fight for the Serbs could reportedly do so without charge. Former Sarajevo police commander Zlatko Miletic estimated far fewer foreign snipers participated, suggesting only 10 to 15 incidents involving outsiders in 1993 and 1994.

Reports about these snipers first emerged during the war, with Bosnian newspapers in 1995 briefly highlighting the so-called “sniper safaris,” but the story did not gain significant traction at that time amid other wartime atrocities. Renewed scrutiny followed the 2022 release of the documentary *Sarajevo Safari*, which included anonymous claims of Western European tourists being armed and directed to shooting positions around the city.

Investigations in Italy have escalated in recent months, with prosecutors questioning Giuseppe Vegnaduzzo, a retired truck driver from northeastern Italy, on suspicion of premeditated murder related to the cases. Meanwhile, some key figures potentially linked to the alleged safaris have died under circumstances that have raised suspicions, according to Miletic and others closely following the developments.

While the existence of foreign “sniper tourists” during the siege of Sarajevo remains contested, continuing investigations and testimonies indicate that at least a small number of Western individuals may have engaged in combat alongside Bosnian Serb forces, contributing to the violence that marked the prolonged siege.