Hearts of Darkness

Four decades ago, Europe was still clearly divided in two. West and East glared at each other, the former tied to the United States, the latter to the Soviet Union. Then, suddenly, things changed in the late 1980s. In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, ending Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe. Then, in 1991, the USSR itself dissolved.

With the end of communist regimes, however, ancient ethnic rivalries emerged. Sometimes they were resolved peacefully, as in the case of Czechoslovakia, where the Czechs and Slovaks mutually separated, giving rise to the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. In other cases, however, ethnic rivalries had dramatic consequences, as in the case of Yugoslavia, a state that brought together different ethnic groups and religions, intermingled for centuries.

Drama erupted when Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in 1991. Slovenia achieved its goal relatively easily, while Serbia forcefully opposed the independence of Croatia, which had a large Serb minority. From Croatia, the conflict spread in 1992 to Bosnia-Herzegovina , where Muslims, Croats, and Serbs lived side by side. The war between the different ethnic groups in Yugoslavia quickly turned into a bloodbath, affecting the civilian population in particular. It was fought by regular armies as well as by irregular groups, whose aim became ethnic cleansing, an action aimed at forcing the opposing ethnic group to abandon a given territory through terror. Thus barbarism returned to a continent, Europe, that believed itself to be civilized. Yet the United States, Western Europe, and the UN hesitated for a long time before intervening, and the UN peacekeepers sent to Bosnia were unable to effectively defend the civilians. In November 1995, US mediation led to the Dayton Peace Agreement, signed by the presidents of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Serbia. Bosnia-Herzegovina became an independent state, divided into two entities, one Muslim-Croat and one Serbian, each with broad autonomy.

During the war, as mentioned, barbarous acts occurred that are difficult to recount , but which it is right not to forget. Above all, on April 5, 1992, Serbian troops under General Ratko Mladić began the siege of Sarajevo , the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which lasted over three years and resulted in the destruction of the city and the deaths of 12,000 inhabitants. During the siege, all the worst things associated with conflict occurred: bombings, rapes, and reckless attacks against the civilian population. Something perhaps even more shameful and unspeakable also occurred: "safaris"—a purely recreational activity aimed at hunting human beings.

In his book I Cecchini del Weekend (Paperfirst, 2026, pp. 288, also available as an ebook), Ezio Gavazzeni uncovers one of the most sordid and hidden mysteries surrounding the Bosnian War. During the siege of Sarajevo, wealthy foreigners from all over the Western world, including many Italians, paid huge sums to work alongside Bosnian Serb army snipers and shoot defenseless people in the capital, Sarajevo. The testimonies collected in the book reconstruct the organization, how the "safaris" were conducted, and the fees paid by the "client-snipers" to shoot human targets. What emerges is that the "hunters'" most coveted prizes were children.

Gavazzeni's book contains testimonies from reliable sources, companions, and previously unheard witnesses, outlining the "phenomenon" in its entirety, from its organization to its execution. We discover that the clients were wealthy Italians, professionals, or entrepreneurs—some of whom still appear on TV today—who could afford to pay the equivalent of a modern-day apartment to spend a weekend shooting Bosnian civilians, then return home unpunished. "Hearts of darkness," but perhaps even this definition is a compliment for cowards.