The Italian newspaper Panorama, in an article by Fausto Biloslava, in collaboration with journalist Eldin Hadzovic, reveals that members of an airsoft club from Trieste, between 1993 and 1995, had warned the Italian police that "an 'offer' was circulating to go to Sarajevo and shoot with a sniper", but that a criminal investigation was never opened.
"When I first heard the news on television about the Sarajevo snipers, I immediately remembered an event from 30 years ago," Roberto Ruzzier told Panorama.
"At the time of the siege of Sarajevo, I was part of an airsoft club created in the capital of Yugoslavia," explains the 72-year-old from Trieste.
The article further explains that this type of hobby, war simulations with fake rifles that shoot with capsules, later turned into a national competition, while Yugoslavia was falling apart on Italy's doorstep.
“The Internet was almost non-existent then and some of us started 'digging' on the net,” recalls Ruzzier.
"One of us, whom we called Rollo, I don't remember his last name, discovered that there was an 'offer' circulating to go to Sarajevo and shoot as a sniper."
The offer stated that "a sniper rifle and some bullets - three, if I remember correctly - would be provided for an exorbitant price of several million Italian lire."
Ruzzier explains to Panorama that they had discussed this within the group and then decided to report it to the police, emphasizing that this had likely happened between 1993 and 1995.
The Italian state police special unit (DIGOS) confirmed that “evidence exists” for this reporting, but a criminal investigation was never launched. According to the Panorama newspaper, the file was most likely dismissed as standard procedure after so many years.
We recall that the investigation in Italy into the wealthy snipers who shot civilians in Sarajevo was opened on the basis of a complaint filed by Ezio Gavazzeni, a writer from Milan, who had collected evidence for these accusations. The complaint, among other things, states that “during the siege of Sarajevo, wealthy foreign tourists paid (…) to shoot at people (…) during the 1992–1996 war”. Gavazzeni names three Italians: one from Turin, one from Milan and one from Trieste. /TRT Balkan/
