Warped rich foreigners who gunned down innocents during the siege of Sarajevo competed to see who could kill the most beautiful women, a new book has wildly claimed.
The wealthy gun enthusiasts shelled out 80,000 Deutsche marks between 1992 and 1996 – around $53,000 at the time — to their Serbian handlers to kill middle-aged women as part of a “human safari” trip, The Times of London reported.
The amount rose to 95,000 marks to gun down young females, and 110,000 marks ($72,000) to shoot pregnant women.
The revelations emerged in Croatian journalist Domagoj Margetic’s book “Pay and Shoot” and it cites documents handed over by Bosnian intelligence officer Nedzad Ugljen, who was killed in 1996.
“Ugljen also wrote the foreigners competed to see who could shoot the most beautiful women,” Margetic told the outlet.
A Bosnian special forces soldier opens fire in downtown Sarajevo in April 1992. AFP via Getty Images Ugljen spoke with members of the Bosnian-Serb militia and it was alleged that a European royal was among the shooters.
“Many of them told me a European royal was among the shooters. He would arrive by helicopter, stay in Vogosca near Sarajevo and wanted to shoot at children,” Ugljen reportedly said.
Even though tourists paid their Serbian handlers, the safari-hunting idea didn’t originate in Serbia – but Croatia, involving Zvonko Horvatincic – who worked for the Yugoslav intelligence forces in Croatia before the wars in the 1990s.
“It was an activity handled by the security services because foreigners were involved,” Margetic said.
Women are pictured running across intersections in Sarajevo to avoid coming under gunfire. AFP via Getty Images “When the siege of Sarajevo got underway, rich Italians asked him in the summer of 1992 if they could go there.”
More than 10,000 people were killed in Sarajevo by snipers and shelling between 1992 and 1996.
Last year, Italian prosecutors probed claims wealthy tourists paid north of $90,000 to shoot people on human safari trips.
The investigation was opened after investigative writer Ezio Gavazzeni alleged “There were Germans, French, English … people from all Western countries who paid large sums of money to be taken there to shoot civilians.”
The probe was launched to identify any Italians involved in sniper tourism.
In February, an 80-year-old former truck driver was put under investigation as part of the sniper tourism probe.
He faces several counts of premeditated murder, but sources didn’t tell Reuters if he directly carried out the killings.
