A German weekly, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS), has published new details about the so-called “Sarajevo Safari”, a phenomenon during the Bosnian War where foreign “war tourists” allegedly paid to hunt civilians in Sarajevo.
The article opens with the testimony of former U.S. Marine and firefighter John Jordan, who in February 2007 testified at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia about “tourist snipers.” Jordan observed men in Sarajevo, often guided by locals, carrying rifles suited more for hunting wild boar than urban combat. He noted that these men were inexperienced at navigating war-torn cityscapes, a fact corroborated by a collaborator from Mostar.
Initially dismissed as urban legend, Jordan’s testimony suggests that Canadians, Russians, Germans, Swiss, and Italians paid paramilitary groups to hunt civilians, with tours continuing in 1994 and 1995.
Italian journalist and author Ecio Gavaceni, together with his lawyer and a former judge, compiled a dossier handed to Milan prosecutors earlier this year. The files claim at least 100 foreign participants, who called themselves “snipers,” and allegedly paid as much as €300,000—with children reportedly being the most “valuable targets.”
“The joy of killing; once you feel the power to end someone’s life arbitrarily, it becomes addictive,” Gavaceni told FAS.
Investigations reveal that participants were often wealthy professionals—doctors, judges, lawyers, entrepreneurs—seeking adrenaline, with little to no ideological motivation. The excursions were meticulously organized: foreign visitors would travel via Trieste to Belgrade, then be transported to Sarajevo or Mostar. Some Italian intelligence reports claimed these tours were halted in 1993, but Gavaceni’s research suggests that the excursions continued well into 1995.
Gavaceni is preparing a book, “I cecchini del weekend” (“Weekend Snipers”), which Netflix and Amazon have already expressed interest in adapting.
Eyewitness accounts include a retired Caritas worker and diplomat Michael Jifoni, confirming that buses full of armed, well-dressed foreigners arrived to hunt in Sarajevo. Investigative journalist Domagoj Margetić alleges that even a young Aleksandar Vučić, then serving as a volunteer in Bosnian Serb forces, collaborated with foreign hunters, a claim firmly denied by Vučić’s spokesperson.
The dossier has now reached Milan prosecutors, and preliminary inquiries have begun. The Italian Five Star Movement has requested that documents on the so-called “Sarajevo Safaris” be made public.
“If the justice system confirms Gavaceni’s findings and even one participant is held accountable, this could become a trial of the century. The evidence has existed all along; it only needed to be connected,” FAS concludes.
The FAS report paints the Sarajevo Safari not merely as a war atrocity, but as a real-life thriller, with international intrigue, delayed justice, and high stakes for accountability decades after the Bosnian War.
