A recently published investigative book in Italy, “I cecchini del weekend” by Ezio Gavazzeni, exposes a suspected network that organized trips for wealthy Italians to Bosnia during the siege of Sarajevo, where they joined Serbian forces to shoot civilians.
According to the author and sources cited, participants paid large sums for these “sniper weekends” and returned with bullet casings color-coded according to their victims: children, women, men, or the elderly – a macabre practice highlighting the brutality of these acts.
Key details from the book and ongoing investigations:
- Italian participants were recruited through a security agency in Milan with connections across Europe.
- Most participants were high-income individuals, including businessmen and professionals such as doctors.
- The cost for a single weekend could reach €340,000, while the “executors” organizing the missions earned up to €4 million per operation.
- Operations were also organized through logistical points in Parma and Trieste, with possible links to drug trafficking and the use of vehicles disguised as humanitarian aid to cross borders undetected.
- Communication was conducted via coded messages and secure devices; the phrase “The deer are ready for the hunters” signaled the start of a trip, with “deer” referring to civilians and “hunters” to the snipers.
- Participants had up to six hours to shoot their targets.
- The most sought-after targets were children and young girls, making this case even more shocking and disturbing.
Currently, three individuals are under investigation by the Milan prosecutor’s office for murders committed during the war, and the findings of the book are being used as evidence for ongoing inquiries led by prosecutor Alessandro Gobbis.
This case sheds light on one of the darkest chapters of the Bosnian War and the involvement of foreign citizens in war crimes against civilians.
