The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic.
Croatian journalist accuses Vucic of having acted as a translator for groups of foreigners who traveled to Sarajevo to carry out “sniper tourism” against civilians. Leader rejects the accusation: the rifle seen on video would be a tripod, he argues.
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucicsaw his name associated with the scandal related to an alleged occurrence during the Bosnian War. Prosecutors in Italy last week opened an investigation into the existence of “sniper tourism” in which Italian citizens paid large sums to Serbian soldiers to shoot Bosnian citizens during the siege of Sarajevobetween 1992 and 1996.
The new accusation came from the Croatian journalist Domagoj Margeticwho filed a complaint with the Milan prosecutor’s office against the current Serbian president. Margetic alleges that Vucic would have acted as a volunteer alongside Serb forces based in the Bosnian capital’s ancient Jewish cemetery, as part of the Sarajevo New Chetnik Detachment, led by commander Slavko Aleksic.
From these locations, long-range snipers randomly targeted besieged civilians, causing the deaths of more than 10,000 people. In 2016, former Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic was convicted of genocide crimes by the International Criminal Court for the massacres that occurred during the conflict.
In a letter addressed to prosecutors, Margetic claims to have gathered statements from Bosnian authorities and a 1993 video that allegedly showed Vucic alongside armed men carrying a sniper rifle. At the time, Vucic was 23 years old.
The journalist claims that the current president of Serbia was placed on one of the front lines of the siege of Sarajevo and would have “facilitated” the movement of wealthy citizens who joined the Serbian militia “for fun”acting as a translator.
The inquiry investigating the case was opened by the Milan prosecutor’s office after an Italian journalist gathered a series of testimonies that would point to the existence of the alleged “human safari”. However, Margetic’s allegations have not yet been accepted into the process or validated as evidence.
Vucic denies involvement
In front of the media, Vucic classified the accusations as “lies”, which seek to treat him as a “monster”.
“I’ve never killed anyone, I’ve never hurt anyone and I’ve never done anything like this. They lied about me as a sniper in Sarajevo 10 or 20 years ago and they continue to lie,” he said.
For years, Vucic has denied any involvement in the crimes committed in Sarajevo. In 2021, he declared that allegations about his presence on the frontline of the conflict are “politically manipulated”.
According to the British newspaper The Times, government spokeswoman Suzana Vasiljevic also classified the case as “malicious disinformation”.
“This narrative lacks factual basis and was created with the operational objective of causing reputational damage [de Vucic]”, he stated.
Vasiljevic also argued that at the time of the siege, the current president worked as a journalist and translator, without any contact with military structures, combat weapons or war operations. The Serbian government spokeswoman also refuted the Croatian journalist’s accusations, arguing that the supposed rifle seen in the images would, in fact, be a tripod used by Vucic in his work as a journalist.
Croatian journalist Domagoj Margetic, however, maintains that, in a 1994 interview, Vucic stated that he volunteered at the Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo, when the Serbian militia led by Slavko Aleksic controlled the place. According to Margetic, the soldier stated in 2017 that Vucic performed translations for foreigners who arrived at the post during the fighting.
Serbian under internal pressure
At this moment, the Serbian president is facing the most prolonged protest movement in Serbia’s recent history, accused of negligence and cover-up in the disaster involving the collapse of a railway station that claimed 13 lives.
In power since 2012, Vucic has strengthened ties with Russia and China and restricted democratic freedoms to consolidate his political control. He was Minister of Information under the dictator Slobodan Milosevic in 1995. On July 20 of that year, with the Bosnian genocide still ongoing, he declared in parliament in Belgrade that “for every Serb killed, a hundred Muslims [bósnios] would be killed”. He never apologized for the statement and today he spreads the narrative that “all sides suffered” in the Yugoslav wars, but only the Serbs are not recognized as victims.
