00:00For almost four years, simply crossing the street in Sarajevo could cost you your life.
00:05During the siege of the city in the 1990s, over 200 civilians were killed by snipers.
00:11Three decades later, Italian writer Itzio Gavazzini has been pivotal in reviving disturbing allegations
00:17that wealthy foreigners paid to shoot civilians trapped in the city.
00:22We know that children and young girls were the preferred targets.
00:26We travel to Italy and Sarajevo to find out whether the victims' families may finally get answers.
00:37Daniele Ĺ akhad usually avoids this part of the main road in the Bosnian capital.
00:42The 43-year-old lost her brother here on what was once known as Sarajevo's sniper alley during the siege.
00:53This is where my brother was killed by a sniper on June 25th, 1995.
01:01It was a beautiful sunny day.
01:04We were outside playing and he took his bike.
01:08Everyone told him not to go.
01:13Her brother Damir was shot while cycling through the street.
01:17UN peacekeepers stationed in the city found him and took him to hospital.
01:21But he later died.
01:22His parents called in to identify their dead son.
01:29He was only 17 years old.
01:32That day was, I don't know how I could describe it to you,
01:37but I still remember my mother's screams and all those people who were present.
01:45I was 13 and I didn't understand what was happening.
01:51From 1992 to 1996, Bosnian Serb forces besieged Sarajevo during the Bosnian war.
01:58From the hills around the city, snipers targeted civilians in the largely Muslim Bosniak population.
02:04Residents used UN tanks for cover, but the peacekeepers could not stop the killing.
02:09More than 10,000 people died during the siege.
02:12Over 1,000 were children.
02:14Many perpetrators have still not been held accountable.
02:33At the Sarajevo scrapbook, parents of murdered children have donated objects that remind them of the sons and daughters lost
02:41here.
02:41Fikret Grabovica is one of them.
02:44His 11-year-old child was shot by a sniper.
02:48He says there was a horrific logic behind the targeting of children.
02:55They killed children because they knew that when you kill a child, you save a bullet, because you killed the
03:02mother at the same time.
03:04Because if the child is dead, the mother's life is no longer worth anything.
03:08In a way, she's also dead.
03:11The whole family is dead.
03:16Three decades after the alleged sniper safaris, Italian writer Ezio Gavazzini began searching for answers.
03:24He ran through countless documents and spoke to witnesses.
03:28He says the material he collected suggests that wealthy European men paid to travel to Sarajevo to kill civilians.
03:38We know that children and young girls were the preferred targets.
03:43Targets like children and young people cost around 100 million lira, equivalent to about 90,000 euro today.
03:52Women cost around 70 million lira.
03:56Men, around 50 million.
03:59Gavazzini says he's encouraged that alongside Bosnia, Italy, Switzerland and Austria, Belgian prosecutors have now also opened proceedings.
04:08He believes Belgium could play a key role in tracing the alleged network behind the killings.
04:16There was a whole organizational structure used to provide these services.
04:23It was run by a number of individuals who were connected to contractor agencies.
04:31These agencies were based in Belgium.
04:38Gavazzini knows that 30 years after the alleged crimes, evidence is difficult to reconstruct.
04:44But he hopes European prosecutors can continue what he has started and help bring justice to the victims and their
04:51families.
04:56It is clear that we will not be able to find all the 400 or 500 people who we know
05:02were involved in this business.
05:07But it might be enough to find some of them.
05:10Then the domino pieces may begin to fall.
05:15We contacted several prosecutors' offices.
05:19They confirmed ongoing investigations, but gave no further details.
05:24In Sarajevo, the wounds of the war remain raw.
05:28That's why many residents are following the investigations closely.
05:33If injustice was done, I do believe that whoever did it should be brought to justice.
05:39Or at least give us the truth.
05:42We need to investigate everything.
05:44That's the only way to stop this from happening again.
05:48Sweeping problems under the carpet is the most dangerous thing.
05:52In life, in politics, in society.
05:55I think we should all also progress further and not forget about it, but put it aside and look for
06:03a brighter future.
06:15More than 1,500 war victims are laid to rest here.
06:2130 years later, she still doesn't know who pulled the trigger.
06:31I'm glad the investigation has started.
06:37It's always hard for me to talk about it.
06:41But if we don't tell what happened, it will be harder for investigators to find the people who did this.
06:48It's always hard for me to talk about it.
06:50It's always hard for me to talk about it.
06:53It's always hard for me to talk about it.
06:54It's always hard for me to talk about it.
06:55Daniela says she will carry the memory of her brother for the rest of her life.
07:00Now, she hopes someone will finally carry responsibility for his killing.
07:05And the best thing.
07:13You
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