Belgium
Practice Relating to Rule 147. Reprisals against Protected Objects
Belgium’s Law of War Manual (1983), citing several examples of jurisprudence and referring to Articles 4 and 33 of the 1949 Geneva Convention IV, states: “The persons protected by the Geneva Conventions (… civilians) may not be made the object of reprisals. Therefore, [reprisals] may be directed only against combatants, non-protected property and a restricted group of non-protected civilians.”
Belgium’s Teaching Manual for Soldiers, in the part containing exercises (questions and answers) for the training of soldiers, gives a negative response to the question as to whether civilian property may be destroyed in reprisal.
Belgium’s Law of War Manual (1983), citing several examples of jurisprudence, states:
Property protected by the [1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property] may not be made the object of reprisals. Therefore, [reprisals] may be directed only against combatants, non-protected property and a restricted group of non-protected civilians.