Romanian woman sniper allegedly among foreigners who paid to shoot civilians during Sarajevo siege
A Romanian woman was part of a group of rich foreigners accused of paying to shoot children and women during the siege of the Bosnian capital in the early 1990s, The Times reported. The unnamed woman allegedly killed 10 people, according to a witness quoted by the publication.
The so-called “human safari” in Sarajevo was first reported on last November, when the public prosecutor's office in Milan announced that it opened an investigation into the matter. Authorities allege that Italian citizens have paid large sums to shoot at civilians in the besieged city of Sarajevo. The Milan complaint was filed by journalist and novelist Ezio Gavazzeni.
Tourist snipers allegedly paid around EUR 100,000 to Bosnian Serb forces who surrounded the city to take part in the shootings. Different rates were charged to kill men, women, or children, according to some reports. More than 11,000 people died during the brutal four-year siege of the city, according to the BBC.
The same investigation prompted Licanin to tell his story. Back in 1993, he signed up with a tank unit run by Bosnian Serb forces, which took part in the deadly siege of Bosniak-held areas. His commander, Slobodan Todorovic, was a former officer in the disbanded Yugoslav army, Licanin said.
Setting up in the city’s Jewish cemetery, which commanded views over Sarajevo, Licanin’s unit shared the vantage point with a 200-strong Serb militia, the Novosarajevo Chetnik Detachment. Snipers part of the militia often shot at women, children, and the elderly from their positions, according to the witness.
Later on, the militia snipers were joined by well-dressed foreigners, according to Licanin. “They were helped to find targets, and shooting from the cemetery was a clear shot; you had everything,” he added. The tourists would also pay around EUR 500 more for a prized sniper spot in a tall building, The Times recounted.
The foreigners who paid to shoot at innocent civilians were mainly wealthy men. They included Britons, Italians, and Germans, but there were women too, according to Aleksandar Licanin, 63, who was a volunteer with a Bosnian Serb tank unit at the time. After their gruesome deeds, they would celebrate.
Licanin's account is backed by Zlatko Miletic, then chief of police in Sarajevo. During the siege, Miletic was running an anti-sniper team. “I remember a woman from Romania who must have killed more than ten people,” he told Balkan news channel N1. His words were widely reported on in the Romanian press.
“Those foreign snipers were deeply dug into concrete trenches, and it was difficult to neutralize them,” claimed Miletic, who is now a member of parliament in Bosnia. “They killed dozens of children and women,” Miletic said, adding that most snipers came from Italy.
Licanin also claimed that one of the Serbs helping the foreign snipers was Aleksandar Vucic, then a young member of the far-right Serbian Radical Party, now president of Serbia. “He would be at the cafe and would translate for the foreigners,” Licanin said. Vucic denied allegations that he was part of the “human safari.”
However, until the European justice system establishes a clear guilt, Licanin and Miletic's accounts should be treated as accusations rather than certainties.
(Photo source: Mark Milstein|Dreamstime.com)
