schema:articleBody
| - Bosnian war crimes prosecutors opened an investigation on Friday after a video emerged of a Serb sniper taking shots during the siege of Sarajevo in 1992. The footage, shot by French journalist Philippe Buffon, who posted it on YouTube, shows several young fighters hiding in a house on the front line in the suburbs of Sarajevo. One is seen firing a sniper's rifle and boasting that he hit someone "in the head". The images were broadcast on local TV and caused a huge stir in the Bosnian capital, where more than 11,000 people were killed during the 1992-95 siege, part of the bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia. "A case was opened immediately after the video appeared on the web," the Bosnian war crimes prosecutor's office said in a statement. "An investigation will be carried out into the circumstances and the role of all the people in the images." Buffon's video, titled "The Snipers of Nedzarici" after a Sarajevo suburb, was no longer available on YouTube on Friday. But some of the images including those of the shooting were included in a longer piece by Buffon seen by AFP. Several media outlets claimed that the gunman was now a waiter in a cafe in a Bosnian Serb area of Sarajevo. Hundreds have been convicted of crimes committed during a war that left 100,000 dead. However, more than a quarter of a century after the conflict, local judiciary officials are still expected to deal with some 600 cases involving 4,500 suspects, according to official data. rus/jxb/yad
|