The victims of the Siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s said they hope the new investigation into reports that wealthy Westerners paid to hunt human beings, including children, in the besieged city will finally bring answers about the senseless killings.
Fatima Popovac, whose 6-year-old son Adnan was picked off by a sadistic sniper, is among those demanding justice for the slaughter that saw about 11,000 civilians killed between 1992 and 1995.
“I cannot understand how someone could kill a child for amusement,” she told the Anadolu Ajansi news agency.
“What harm could a 6-year-old child possibly have done to anyone?” she asked. “I cannot even imagine that those who carried these out could be in human form.
“I wish I could see that monster — what they look like, what they resemble. Do they carry no humanity at all?” she added.
Italian prosecutors made international news this month when they opened a case investigating reports of “sniper tourism” business that boomed during the Bosnian War.
Interest in the war crimes committed in Sarajevo was renewed after journalist and novelist Ezio Gavazzeni filed a legal complaint over claims that Italians and other foreigners had paid leaders of the Bosnian Serb forces to visit the city and fire at civilians.
The foreigners allegedly paid as much as $90,000 to take part in the makeshift “human safari zone,” with extra payments supposedly made for a chance at killing children.
Gavazzeni, who was inspired to investigate the allegations after watching a 2022 documentary, said he provided his evidence to prosecutors in Milan.
Dzemil Hodzic, founder of the “Sniper Alley” project documenting wartime crimes during the Bosnian War, said he supported the new probe, slamming anyone who would take part in the “sniper tourism” as “killers” and “terrorists.”
“As long as I live, I will fight for the truth,” Hodzic told Anadolu. “And I won’t stop.”
Civilians in Sarajevo were constantly under shelling and sniper fire following Bosnia and Herzegovina’s declaration of independence from Yugoslavia.
Fear ruled over the city for four years — as riflemen often shot civilians walking in the streets, including children, at random.
The city’s main street, Meša Selimović Boulevard, was nicknamed “Sniper Alley” because of the frequent murders on the road, which was the only one leading to the airport.
The “human safari” was allegedly maintained by Radovan Karadžić, the former Bosnian Serb leader who was found guilty of genocide and other crimes against humanity in 2016.
Former Sarajevo Mayor Benjamina Karic, who was only a toddler during the war, said she’s hopeful that the investigation in Italy could help bring more people who were involved in the siege to justice.
“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,” Karic told Reuters.
Prosecutors in Milan have not commented on the case.
With Post wires
