Media reports regarding the so-called “sniper tourism” — a phenomenon in which wealthy individuals from Western Europe allegedly paid money to travel to the hills above besieged Sarajevo in order to shoot at civilians as part of a deadly “safari” — have sparked debate within German politics.
According to Der Spiegel, the Alliance 90/The Greens in the German parliament officially requested information from the Government of Germany on whether German intelligence services and other authorities possess knowledge of German citizens allegedly involved in these war crimes in Sarajevo. However, the government reportedly refused to provide detailed information.
In its response to the Greens, the German government argued that providing a concrete answer would be “unreasonable” due to the extensive workload required.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community stated that tracing such information would require a manual review of thousands of physical and digital files dating back to 1992.
According to the government, this process would disrupt the work of institutions for an indefinite period. The same reasoning was reportedly applied to the archives of the Federal Public Prosecutor General, where officials stated that categories such as “sniper killings” are not specifically indexed in legal records, meaning a manual search through extensive archives would be necessary.
The German government’s position has sparked criticism from the Greens. Irene Mihalic, a Green Party member of parliament and former police officer whose parents originate from Croatia, told Der Spiegel that failing to answer questions about such dramatic crimes is deeply problematic.
According to Mihalic, the government’s refusal undermines parliamentary oversight and the right to information.
