Sarajevo 'human safaris': Serbian prez accused of being a 'weekend sniper' where rich tourists killed civilians for pleasure

The controversy surrounding Sarajevo’s human safaris continues to grow, as now Serbia's current president is accused of participating in the hunting trips of unarmed civilians. The case blew open a few days ago when reports emerged that wealthy tourists paid £70,000 to shoot innocent people in “human safari” hunting trips to Sarajevo in the 1990s. The rich visited for “sniper tourism” during the four-year siege by Serb-Bosnian militias amid the Bosnian War. Reports suggest that between 1992 and 1996, more than 10,000 people were killed in shelling and sniper fire. The tourists paid extra to shoot kids. Aleksandar Vučić, who has been in office since 2017, has been accused of taking part in these expeditions to hunt people. An investigation against tourists who took part in the violent trips targeting innocent people has been opened by prosecutors in Milan.

In a letter to the prosecutor's office, Croatian investigative journalist Domagoj Margetic has alleged that Vučić not only participated in the human safaris but also helped organise sniper tourism in Sarajevo. The politician has previously dismissed all such allegations. Serbian lawyer Čedomir Stojkovic backs Margetic’s claims and is trying to get the magistrates in Belgrade to launch an investigation. Margetic says that a video from 1993 shows Vučić with a sniper rifle alongside other armed men.

Serbian President was a 'war volunteer'

The location was a Jewish cemetery near Sarajevo from where Serbian snipers operated. Vučić says it was not a rifle, but an umbrella. The Serbian President was a 'war volunteer' in Sarajevo in 1992 and 1993, something he admitted during a purported interview with the Serbian magazine Duga in 1994. He was also a member of the New Sarajevo Chetnik Detachment of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), led by commander Slavko Aleksić.

“When the war in Bosnia began, I went to Serbian Sarajevo and signed up as a volunteer. I was not a member of the party; I simply went. I knew some friends and that's why I went to defend [the Serbians],” he says in the supposed interview. The journalist wrote in a letter to Milan magistrates that Zukan Helez, Bosnia's minister of defence, once said that members of the VRS told him they witnessed Vučić firing on Sarajevo residents from the Jewish cemetery.

The rich paid to shoot at people in Sarajevo

The disgusting practice of hunting people was allegedly promoted by the Bosnian Serb army, who took money from rich tourists with ties to hard-Right circles for weekend trips where they killed the residents for pleasure. These people flew from Trieste to Belgrade on the Serbian airline Aviogenex, paid between £70,000 and £88,000 to be “weekend snipers” and killed innocent people. El País reported that if they wished to kill children, they had to pay extra. The matter came to light following a 17-page legal complaint submitted by Milan-based writer and journalist Ezio Gavazzeni, backed by former magistrate Guido Salvini and Benjamina Karic, mayor of Sarajevo from 2021 to 2024.

In 2022, a documentary titled 'Sarajevo Safari' by Slovenian filmmaker Miran Zupanic shared testimonies about the weekend snipers. The money was paid to Radovan Karadžić's troops, the former Bosnian Serb leader who was sentenced to 40 years for genocide and other crimes against humanity in 2016.