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A former Bosnian intelligence officer has disclosed that over thirty years ago, SISMI, the Italian military intelligence agency at the time, identified and dismantled a troubling network known as the "weekend snipers", which included Italians who, during the Bosnian conflict, paid to travel to Sarajevo to kill civilians on the opposing side of the front line. This statement was obtained through correspondence with writer Ezio Gavazzeni, who filed a complaint with the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office in recent months. This action resulted in the initiation of an investigation into multiple voluntary homicides, characterized by heinous motives and cruelty, overseen by Prosecutor Alessandro Gobbis and assigned to the Carabinieri ROS (Special Operations Squad). According to the former Bosnian 007, his country's intelligence agencies knew about the so-called "safari" in late 1993 and notified the SISMI early the next year. The Italian response, which arrived a few months later, was straightforward: "We discovered that the safari departs from Trieste. We've interrupted it, and it won't happen again". From that point forward, Bosnian intelligence received no other reports of similar expeditions. The agent stated that the names of the accused participants or organizers were never provided, but that there should be a SISMI document proving the intervention. However, the Sarajevo military archives, which supposedly contain references to the incident, are classified as "Top Secret", and only a court can authorize their consultation. The former mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karic, has also submitted a formal complaint requesting access to the documents, but has so far been unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Gavazzeni has requested Italian investigators to ascertain whether the national archives contain a copy of the documentation that may include the names of the "sniper tourists" or their contacts. According to the reconstruction, the "safari" participants flew from Trieste to Belgrade on planes provided by a Serbian airline before being carried to the conflict zones by helicopter. All of this was paid, at least in part, "under the table". Finally, the former Bosnian agent stated that similar techniques may have continued in more recent conflicts, mentioning Ukraine and Lebanon as examples of "sniper-hunting expeditions" that he believes have never stopped. Now it's up to the Italian judiciary to confirm the authenticity of these claims and establish whether, thirty years ago, someone turned the misery of the Sarajevo conflict into a macabre "hunting game".
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