BRUSSELS

Belgian prosecutors could open an investigation into alleged "sniper tourism" carried out during the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s if Belgian nationals were involved, according to former international judge Chris Van den Wyngaert, VRT News reported on Monday.

The remarks come after prosecutors in Milan last week launched a probe into claims that wealthy foreign nationals paid large sums of money to fire at civilians in Sarajevo from surrounding hills during the Bosnian War and that Bosnian Serb forces organized “human safaris” for wealthy visitors in Sarajevo.

The investigation in Italy follows a complaint filed by journalist and author Ezio Gavazzeni, who had researched the alleged incidents.

Several Italian nationals allegedly travelled to the Bosnian capital during the siege of Sarajevo to join Serb sniper units and fire on civilians for “entertainment,” Italian media reported earlier. According to the daily La Repubblica, the men were not soldiers but “radical far-right war tourists.”

Speaking to radio program De Ochtend, van den Wyngaert, who served for years as a judge at both the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, said she had never encountered evidence of such practices during her tenure.

"I didn't believe it, it was so unbelievable," van den Wyngaert said.

"I spent seven years at the tribunal and had never heard of this until now. The rumors have existed for a long time, but no proof has been found yet," she added.

Van den Wyngaert stressed that if Belgians were implicated in the alleged crimes, they could not be tried by the ICC, as the court did not yet exist at the time. However, Belgian prosecutors could still initiate their own investigation.

She noted that because the alleged perpetrators were civilians, the acts would not fall under the laws of war.

"If it concerns murder, the offenses may be time-barred but they could also be considered crimes against humanity, and those do not expire," she explained.

During the 3½-year siege, in which Serb forces surrounded and bombarded Sarajevo, more than 11,500 civilians were killed, including 1,601 children.

During the Bosnian War, Serb forces, backed by the Yugoslav army and paramilitary units, launched an ethnic cleansing campaign against Bosniak Muslims. By the end of the war, more than 100,000 people had been killed, and some 2 million were forced to flee their homes.