Featured Image Credit: MIKE PERSSON/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: World News
Callum Jones
A former US Marine provided a chilling testimony about the alleged ‘human safari’ trips that 'tourists' allegedly paid up to $90,000 for to shoot civilians, including children, in the 1990s.
The alleged 'human safari' is said to have taken place during the Bosnian War, with journalist and novelist Ezio Gavazzeni claiming to have uncovered evidence that so-called 'sniper tourists' from overseas could fork out up to $90,000 to gun down innocent people of all ages.
Gavazzeni described the situation back in the day as a 'manhunt' by 'very wealthy people' who were granted permission to murder 'defenceless civilians' from Bosnian Serb positions in the hills around the city of Sarajevo during a brutal siege from 1992 to 1996, the longest siege in modern warfare.
Tourists are said to have paid different rates to gun down men and women, with children reportedly costing a higher price.
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“There were Germans, French, English...people from all Western countries who paid large sums of money to be taken there to shoot civilians,” Gavazzeni claimed, as per the complaint in Milan.
“There were no political or religious motivations. They were rich people who went there for fun and personal satisfaction. We are talking about people who love guns who perhaps go to shooting ranges or on safari in Africa."
Back in 2007, former Marine John Jordan was at The Hague testifying about the alleged goings-on as he was shot in the chest while responding to a fire in the city.
He also testified that the snipers would target the youngest in a family.
"If an adult and child were walking together, the child would be shot," he said. "If a family were walking, it would be the youngest. In a crowd of girls, it seemed that the most attractive would be shot."
Jordan continued: "I had witnessed on more than one occasion personnel who did not appear to me to be locals by their dress, by the weapons they carried, and by the way they were being handled, i.e., guided around by the locals."
The former Marine went on to tell the court these so-called 'tourist shooters' carried weapons that were more suited to 'hunting boar in the Black Forest than urban combat in the Balkans'.
An investigation into the alleged 'human safari' trips is ongoing, with Gavazzeni claiming to Italy's La Repubblica newspaper that 'many' participated in the crimes.