Last week, the prosecutor's office in the Italian city of Milan initiated an investigation into allegations that Italian citizens had traveled to Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war there in the early 1990s, paying money to be able to fire on civilians.

Italian journalist Ezio Gavazzeni had first filed the complaint, which stated that wealthy tourists had paid fees as set out by a price tariff, for the "opportunity" to fire live rounds at defenseless civilians, including women and children, trapped in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, at a time when it was encircled by Serb forces.

Speaking to "Vikerhommik," Hvostov, who has penned books about the Yugoslav wars, said stories of "murder tourism" in Bosnia had already been circulating back in the 1990s, adding he was surprised that the claims are only now being investigated.

"All sorts of foreign mercenaries were in the main talked about, but that is how it can be with civil wars — let's put it bluntly: They simply attract all sorts of human vermin, either looking to make money, or wanting to act out on their psychotic or sadistic urges. Unfortunately, this is a phenomenon that accompanies war," he said. Hvostov conceded that it troubles him that 30 years have passed, but only now has the subject begun to be taken seriously.

"I am very interested in how things like this were organized," he said, opining that if activity of this nature really did take place, then some kind of organizing committee had to be responsible for ensuring that the "tourist-murderers" killed people according to a agreed upon price tariff. "I simply cannot wrap my head around how this was organized," he noted.

This is not to say that the topic shouldn't be addressed with a clear head.
"I suspect a little — since the matter was brought up by a writer — that there may be a degree of literary embellishment involved. I find it difficult to imagine how such a thing could be organized in the middle of combat operations," he said.

The issue is also in focus in the context of the ongoing Gaza war, and German media reports of a unit made up mainly of Israeli dual citizens, who have voluntarily come from other countries to fight. This unit has been accused of systematically killing unarmed civilians, mostly using sniper rifles and tactics.

A German citizen serving in that unit was identified in the media, who have investigated his background. "It turns out he had been a perfectly decent boy — a good student, no problems at school; rather withdrawn maybe, a bit of a nerd. Right now they are putting together a psychological profile of the members of the unit that stood out in Gaza. It seems they can be somewhat the loner type," Hvostov said.

Ultimately, Hvostov said he doubts whether those who allegedly organized the murder tourism in Bosnia would ever be held accountable, given the legacy of the war there and the status of home-grown war criminals.

"In the Western Balkan states, their own war criminals are still carefully protected; to this day there is reluctance to extradite them," Hvostov added. "Though as for those wealthy Western European so-called murder tourists who went there — those of whom are still alive, I hope they get found."

"My greatest hopes lie currently with investigative journalism. My main deisre is really that they now grab onto this like, bulldogs and won't let go," Hvostov concluded.

U.K. paper The Telegraph wrote that wealthy tourists would pay £80,000 for weekend "safaris" in which the aim was to shoot and kill civilians, with the price higher for those wishing to murder children.

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