Army Volunteer shares chilling detail about ‘£70,000 human safaris’ as new suspect questioned
A former Serbian tank unit volunteer has shared a disturbing detail about the people who paid thousands to take part in the alleged 'human safaris' in Sarajevo in the 1990s.
Horrific allegations came to light in 2022 with the documentary Sarajevo Safari, which claimed that rich and powerful people paid up to £70,000 to travel to the Bosnian war zone and shoot at innocent civilians.
From 1992-1996, more than 10,000 people were killed by snipers and shelling in Sarajevo.
The 'human hunters' allegedly paid more to shoot at children and pregnant women, and reportedly met with Serbian militants at the vantage point of Sarajevo's Jewish cemetery to take part in their twisted sport.
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Aleksandar Licanin, a former Serbian tank unit volunteer, told The Times the hunters were given assistance in their search for victims, all while wearing expensive clothing.
"They wore expensive leather jackets and I was told they were Italians, Germans and British," he said. “They were helped to find targets, and shooting from the cemetery was a clear shot — you had everything.”
New 'Sarajevo Safari' suspect wanted for questioning
As reported by The Times, an Italian aristocrat obsessed with military weaponry is accused of paying huge sums to take part in the human safaris.
The unidentified man, who comes from a wealthy Milanese family, is wanted for questioning by magistrates in Italy.
It's alleged he boasted about the trips multiple times over dinner with his close friends.
“I was approached by a witness who reported the aristocrat had boasted to friends about the safari more than once over dinner,” investigative journalist Ezio Gavazzeni told The Times.
I believe the friends have also been questioned.”
Silencer found as suspects' house is raided
Four alleged shooters have already been questioned in Italy, with a silencer being found at one suspects' house, in Alessandria, near Milan, in a raid on Wednesday.
This suspect, also unidentified, allegedly told his ex-partner that he would: ''depart from Milan by plane and that there were some people with him who spent the weekend... being snipers and shooting Muslims'.
Previously speaking to LADbible about the shocking sums that people would pay in order to be involved with the barbaric acts, Gavazzeni said: "There were set rates: 100 million lire [£45,000] (from 1992-95) for a child or a young girl; 70 million [£30,000] for a woman; 50 million [£22,000] for a man; and just under 20 million [£9,000] for a very elderly person.
"These rates were confirmed in a recent Times article by Tom Kington, which cites an investigation by a Croatian journalist who confirms - through a different perspective and sources - the same pricing I found.
"The money was all exchanged off the books, in suitcases or bags, in cash. The organisation was based in Belgium and had contacts in individual European countries whose role was to find wealthy clients."
A timeline of the Sarajevo 'human safari' allegations
5 April 1992
The Siege of Sarajevo begins. For almost four years, the 400,000 inhabitants of the city suffer from shelling and snipers, with many cut off from food, water, medicine and electricity.
Late 1993
Bosnian military intelligence officer Edin Subasic comes across testimony from a Serbian volunteer. He later tells El País the man spoke about seeing ‘five Italians who had hunting equipment and expensive weapons’ who described themselves as ‘hunters who paid Serbs in Sarajevo to shoot people in the city’.
29 February 1996
The Siege of Sarajevo ends.
2007
Former US Marine John Jordan testifies to the International Criminal Court about ‘tourist shooters’. He said: “I never saw one of these tourist shooters take a shot. I just saw them being handled and moved around known sniper positions.
“It was clearly obvious that the person being led by men who were familiar with the ground was completely unfamiliar with the ground, and his manner of dress and the weapons they carried led me to believe they were tourist shooters.”
2014
Luca Leone writes in his book The B***ards of Sarajevo of European tourists paying at checkpoints managed by Serbian paramilitaries in Croatia and Bosnia to shoot civilians in Sarajevo.
2022
The documentary Sarajevo Safari by Slovenian director Miran Zupanic further drags the murky details of the alleged human safaris into the public eye.
The film includes testimony from Subasic and an unnamed Slovenian source who worked for ‘an important American agency’. The latter claims in the film to have seen ‘how, for certain sums of money, strangers would come in to shoot at the surrounded citizens of Sarajevo’.
November 2025
The public prosecutor's office in Milan opens an investigation into claims Italian citizens were involved in the ‘human safaris’, after journalist and author Ezio Gavazzeni filed a legal complaint.
Meanwhile, US congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna says she has opened her own investigation and vows: “If there are any Americans who have engaged in this, they deserve to be charged and prosecuted.”
February 2026
An 80-year-old Italian truck driver allegedly becomes the first suspect investigated over the ‘human safaris’.
Topics: World News, Crime
Daniel Murphy