"Irina Cesic celebrated her first birthday on October 8, 1993. Four days later, she was killedby a sniper's bullet on the streets of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo. "Since Irina had just learned to walk, my wife Stana was holding her by the hand," Irina's father, Samir Cesic, told RFE/RL. "We never understood why someone would shoot at a 50-60-centimeter target -- the height of a one-year-old girl -- instead of a much larger one, like my wife, who would have been easier to hit.""
"In recent days, their grief has been reignited by reports in the Italian media about an investigation being conducted in Milan into the so-called "weekend snipers." According to the Italian newspapers Il Giorno and La Repubblica, and the news agency ANSA, prosecutors are investigating claims that during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, wealthy foreigners paid "large sums of money" to shoot civilians in besieged Sarajevo -- "for fun.""
One-year-old Irina Cesic was killed by a sniper in Sarajevo four days after her first birthday while held by her mother. Her parents have sought answers for three decades, and recent Italian media reports describe a Milan investigation into "weekend snipers" allegedly paid by wealthy foreigners to shoot civilians "for fun." Sarajevo endured a 1,425-day siege by the Army of the Republika Srpska. More than 1,600 children were killed and 14,000 wounded, with about one in ten child deaths caused by snipers. No individual snipers have been held personally accountable in Bosnian or international courts.
Read at RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
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