“Human safari”: the commodification of violence at its most brutal

The case, which caused an international scandal and led to an investigation in Italy, put on the agenda an extreme example of how death in the context of war can be exploited as a commodity for sale. Reflections on genocide conceived as “entertainment.”

The world was shaken over the past few weeks by news of the ongoing investigation into the so-called “human safari” that allegedly took place during the Balkan war, between the early and mid-1990s. It is an alleged operation in which Italian citizens reportedly took part in human hunts, safari-style, in the Sarajevo area, in Bosnian territory, during that historic armed conflict. Beyond the gruesome and inhumane nature of the act itself, the news once again reveals one of the most extreme points of the commodification of death and violence, as well as of profiteering from genocidal processes. 

 What was initially information emerging from a documentary was the trigger that led journalist and researcher Enio Gavazzeni to provide documentation and data on this phenomenon, which has now become the focus of a scandal. The Italian justice system is pursuing the case against a network of clandestine elite businesses in which citizens from the upper classes paid thousands of euros, as part of a “tour,” to act as snipers against the population trapped by the war between 1992 and 1996.

According to information reported by media outlets around the world, the grim dynamics of the operation meant that hunting children had a higher “price” than hunting adults, on a scale of fees that included pregnant women, older men and soldiers. The investigation is now being led by Italian prosecutor Alessandro Gobbis, who took up Gavazzeni’s complaint. So far, the case is believed to involve the charge of “aggravated murder” with “abject motives,” a crime that has no statute of limitations in Italy. According to the progress of the investigation, at least five Italian citizens have already been identified as participants in the so-called human “safari.” 

In recent statements, Gavazzeni stressed that the case points to wealthy citizens from business circles, people “of reputation,” as actors in this alleged chain of crimes committed “for fun.” The uproar has brought into discussion not only the horror of these acts and their alleged concealment until now, but also the cloak of impunity that can shield the world’s economic elites in the face of violence and crime, to the point of using it as a commercial pastime.

It must be stressed that this took place within a genocide such as the Balkan war. The conflict became an example of slaughter between brother peoples, whose cultural, religious and historical differences, deepened by geopolitical complexities, led to the outbreak of a bloody war in a shared territory. Combining the commodification of a murderous practice “for fun” with a context of such magnitude further deepens the dehumanizing component of profiting from death and violence. 

Armed conflicts as a source of profit

This is not the first time armed conflicts have been exploited as arenas for profit and commerce around genocide and violence. Corporations linked to weapons and security, as well as contractors of “mercenaries,” often take advantage of war situations in various parts of the world to deploy weaponry or personnel. There are well-known cases of companies that provide combat task forces to armies, whose actions later become the subject of controversy over violations of international law.

Dehumanization turned into a commodity

Although the case of the so-called “Sarajevo Safari” triggered an immediate reaction over the criminal element of killings tied to a macabre form of transaction and “leisure,” this is not the first time profit has manifested itself in acts that do violence to humanity. There are several examples in which the market and consumption cross boundaries that violate human integrity, enabled both by clandestine illegality and by legitimized dehumanization.  

One example that became known worldwide was that of Ota Benga, a young man from a tribe in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who was abducted in 1904 to be “exhibited” at a zoo in the United States. The young man was kept locked in the monkey cage as part of the establishment’s “decor,” where he remained captive for years until various protests secured his release. 

More recently, in 2012 several media articles denounced the situation of a tribe in the Andaman Islands whose integrity was being put at risk by tourism. The issue gained prominence after images were released showing a police officer ordering a member of the local Jarawa tribe to “dance for the tourists.” The situation was denounced at the time by the human rights organization Survival International.  

Guillermo Whpei

President of Fundación para la Democracia