If there's a hell, those guilty of this should fear it

 

I'm sure that by now, many of my readers have heard the allegations that during the Bosnian War, elements of the Bosnian Serb forces invited outsiders - foreigners - to pay for "safaris" to hunt and murder Bosnian civilians in Sarajevo.

The foreigners, from Italy, the US, Russia and elsewhere, are accused of paying Serbian forces to take part in the shooting spree during the Bosnian War.

They were allegedly motivated by sympathy for the Serbian cause, sheer bloodthirstiness or a combination of the two, investigators say.

. . .

The amateur snipers paid the modern-day equivalent of €80,000 to €100,000 (median £80,000) to take part in the chilling “sport”, according to La Repubblica newspaper.

. . .

The case has been taken up by an Italian journalist and writer, Ezio Gavazzeni, with the backing of two lawyers and a former judge.

There was “a price tag for these killings: children cost more, then men, preferably in uniform and armed, women, and finally old people, who could be killed for free,” said Mr Gavazzeni.

There's more at the link, including earlier allegations that now appear to be vindicated by the latest evidence.  It appears that people from Italy, America and Russia were among the "tourist snipers".

When I first read that report, I got a sick feeling in my stomach, very similar to what I experienced when I realized the magnitude of the Catholic clergy child sex abuse crisis.  The thought of anyone casually handing over large sums of money for the "privilege" of hunting innocent civilians, murdering them for no reason except that they were available . . . it's almost beyond belief.  I've seen that kind of callous indifference among combat troops who'd been exposed to a war environment for too long, and had left at least part of their humanity behind, but I'd never dreamed that "normal" people might do the same.  (They're not "normal", of course:  they're monsters in human form, who've drowned their souls in the dregs of existence by their own choice.)

You'll understand that I still view life through the lens of a clergyman's calling, despite not having been professionally active in that field for a long time.  I wonder what I would do if someone who'd done that came to me and asked me to hear his confession of sin, and give him absolution?  I hope and pray that I wouldn't turn away from my calling, and would minister to him as best I could . . . but it would be extraordinarily difficult.  It was the same for me as a prison chaplain, when a multiple murder or rapist or whatever would feel the touch of grace, and want to repent before God.  To sit and listen to the litany of pure evil they unleashed in their confession was probably the hardest thing I had to do as a clergyman.  I can only hope and pray that God's mercy would reach out and cover their sins, even though as a human being I didn't know that such mercy would be possible.  I suppose it's a good thing I'm not God . . .

I can't say any more about it.  I've run out of words to describe the horror I felt reading this, and remembering those video news images of civilians being cut down in the streets of Sarajevo.  May those guilty of this repent of their sins;  but if they don't, may they suffer condign punishment and retribution in the hereafter.

Peter