In an extensive article, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung questions three key sources for the story of "Sarajevo safari" and criticizes serious European media who "hungry for clicks" are reporting that story, he writes Deutsche says.
"Hundreds of rich men travel to the war zone and pay a lot of money to kill civilians for fun - this is the story of the 'Sarajevo Safari' that has been reported by numerous media in recent months. FAZ also reported on it," begins a large article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). He immediately states: "It has been proven that more than 10.000 inhabitants of Sarajevo died during the many years of systematic fire on the city. And fear and trepidation were especially spread by snipers, who lurked from the heights around the city located in the valley."
Journalist Mihael Martens, a correspondent who has been covering the Balkans for a long time, in his article questions the media's previous writing because it is largely based on three "decisive sources". These are the film "Sarajevo Safari" by Slovenian director Miran Zupanič (2022), and two books from this year, "Weekend snipers" by the Italian thriller author Ezio Gavaceni and "Pay and Shoot" by the Croatian author Domagoj Margetić.
"It's just that none of the three parts even come close to passing the test when you look at the sources they rely on. Anyone who sees the movie and reads the books afterwards knows less than nothing," Martens writes.
Film based on an anonymous witness
It is recalled that after Zupanič's film, the mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karić, filed a criminal complaint against unknown persons, but that the prosecutor's office in Sarajevo did not file an indictment even four years later. "It's no wonder," writes FAZ, "because there is no evidence strong enough for the court."
The main source in the film is said to be anonymous. He claims that in 1991 he was offered to work for an American service in Ljubljana, which he accepted for the sake of money - he was allegedly an avid gambler.
While doing that job, he allegedly witnessed the hunting of people from Serbian positions above the besieged Sarajevo. In the film, writes Martens, there are also authentic brutal shots of sniper victims, "but they prove the crimes in themselves, not that the perpetrators are foreign snipers. But their guilt is discreetly insinuated by manipulative editing."
It is strange, writes Martens, that the anonymous witness of that film says that the Serbs warned him not to tell anyone what he saw, even though they allegedly took him to the positions from where the customers - foreign snipers - were shooting, even though they knew he was working for the American service. "But why would the Serbs willingly serve the Americans with evidence of their war crimes," Martens wonders.
Elsewhere in the film, Edin Subasic speaks, previously in the secret service of the BiH Army. Subasic claims that in 1993, a captured Serbian soldier admitted to the arrival of Italians who were paying him to shoot. However, Martens adds that it is not known whether that Serb really existed, nor who he is, nor whether he is alive.
"Blissfully ignorant" Italian
The film is still a "trifle" in comparison to the "festival of bizarreness" that Gavaceni brings in his book, assesses FAZ. "Gavaceni, who did not find it appropriate to investigate on the spot or conduct conversations around Sarajevo, blissfully ignorant wanders through the scenes he describes."
"He writes, for example, about a Yugoslav infantry unit stationed in Norilsk - only that city is not in Yugoslavia but on the Siberian permafrost. Every few pages, the master chef of rumors Gavaceni serves the audience as an appetizer his amazing ability to understand nothing about the Balkans," criticizes Martens.
As examples, he cites the incorrect claim that the massacre in Srebrenica was not known for two whole weeks, that highways in Serbia were bombed during the war in Bosnia - which actually happened only in 1999, or that there was a war in Romania at the same time.
Martens especially points out Gavaceni's thesis that the "tours" on the supposed safari "probably" traveled from Trieste or Parma by flight to Belgrade and then by land. But, the FAZ journalist recalls, Serbian airspace was closed by force of the Security Council resolution, and the blockade was lifted only at the end of 1994.
It turns out that the Serbs did not kill anyone with a sniper
Martens also talks with Tim Jude, who in 1992 was a correspondent for the Times and the Economist from Belgrade. "Of course he can't rule out that there weren't some isolated cases of foreign snipers who were paid to shoot," writes Martens, but in the articles about the "Sarajevo Safari," Jude sees "a sensationalist story spread by people who weren't there and can't even imagine how extremely unlikely such a thing is on a larger scale."
Martens reminds that Gavaceni refers to many anonymous witnesses to whom he gives nicknames, but also to the figures he presents.
"According to Mirsad Tokača, a leading expert on the number of victims during the Bosnian war, there were around 350 sniper victims in Sarajevo during the siege. According to Gavaceni, at the same time around 230 snipers from Italy alone took part in the killing games, 'from France and Belgium a little less, some from Switzerland and some from Austria'. Many of the perpetrators, he says, killed more victims per trip. One Italian sniper 'killed two children, a woman and at the end of the three old men', Gavaceni quotes his alleged witness."
Martens comments: "When these numbers are added up, it turns out that the Serbian troops had absolutely nothing to do with the sniper terror over Sarajevo - and that all the sniper victims were the work of foreigners, while Mladic's troops were just interested observers."
"Even paranoid people can be persecuted"
The journalist further writes that Domagoj Margetić's book succeeds in overshadowing even Gavaceni, recalling that a number of media such as Frankfurter Rundschau, taz, Bild, El Pais, Politika, Times or the Swiss public service presented Margetić as an "investigative journalist".
"The well-known Croatian author and publicist Boris Rašeta describes Margetić as an 'author of fairy tales for adults,'" writes Martens, while "renowned Croatian author" Ivica Đikić says that Margetić is a conspiracy theorist.
Margetić has an "exuberant imagination", Martens assesses, citing a part from the book in which the Croatian author claims that "a European king" came to Sarajevo to kill children and rape women. "Once upon a time (the king) chose little children who were held by their mothers, or at least by the hand," Martens further quotes.
"The source? A certain 'Dragan' who on the Serbian side allegedly belonged to the unit in charge of the 'logistics' of the royal visit," writes FAZ.
Former Croatian Prime Minister and head of the intelligence service Josip Manolić allegedly spoke to Margetić about the "Sarajevo Safari". But, as Martens notes, Manolic died two years ago, so he can't confirm that, and he didn't mention the "safari" in his 800-page memoir.
A total of four such sources of Margetić, who have a known name and surname - are now dead, writes Martens.
"Dosetka says that someone can also persecute paranoids, so it doesn't have to be that everything in Margetić's book is wrong. Unlike Gavaceni, Margetić at least knows the region and the context. Even conspiracy theorists sometimes find a grain of truth," says Martens and concludes:
"But Margetić also primarily contributes to the mystique of manhunters and the alleged 'Sarajevo safari', which unfortunately many media outlets, hungry for clicks, are spreading. Zupanič, Gavaceni and Margetić are not problematic. After all, it is not forbidden to create bad books and films. It is controversial, on the other hand, journalism that adopts such works uncritically only if the tone is right - evil old white men as the perpetrators. Maybe there was a manhunt in Sarajevo. But that cannot be concluded from a source that is constantly used for the claim they state."
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