The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague has decided that Serbia is not guilty of genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina. “The Court establishes that Serbia has not committed genocide through its organs or persons whose acts engage its responsibility under customary international law or through violations of their obligations for prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide “, Rosalyn Higgins, the president of the ICJ, read from the ruling. (26-FEB-07)

This article draws upon a number of other articles, already published in both Bosnian and international news media. The editing and rewriting into one, new article for publication here has been done by HRH / Mirsad Pandzic.

Bosnia and Herzegovina filed the lawsuit in 1993 against Yugoslavia at the time with a request for this country to be proclaimed responsible for aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina and genocide committed on its territory. A verdict in favour of the plaintiff could have opened a legal path for Bosnia and Herzegovina to claim several billion dollars of damages from Serbia. The motion of Bosnia and Herzegovina sent to the ICJ requesting ruling on whether Serbia had stood behind genocide, is the first case of a trial of one country for genocide since this act was defined as a legal category at the UN Convention in 1948, several years after the Nazi genocide against Jews. The Court refused to proclaim itself non-authorized for the lawsuit of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Serbia for genocide, and it confirmed its jurisdiction for this lawsuit, which was stated by the sued party. The president of the Court stated at the beginning that Serbia is the formal successor of Serbia-Montenegro and Yugoslavia, while Montenegro does not represent a successor of the community of states. Serbia has, unlike Montenegro, accepted the continuity from Serbia-Montenegro and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Judgement
As stated by the Court president, it could not be established that the state bodies of the sued party, the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, had participated in Srebrenica genocide, where the Republika Srpska and the Army of Republika Srpska were not bodies of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Court did not have evidence that Ratko Mladic and other officers had been officers of the responsible party either, nor that Mladic was such an officer. There is no doubt that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had provided significant assistance to Republika Srpska, including payment of officers’ wages, but that, according to Higgins, does not make the latter “organs of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia”. The Court decided that there had been no full dependence on the sued party at this time. Higgins said that significant assistance was coming from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to Republika Srpska during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but that it was not proved that crimes in Srebrenica had been committed with funds received from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Also, it was not established that the authorities of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had assisted the Republika Srpska bodies, when it was clear that genocide would take place or when genocide had started, Higgins said. As Higgins said in the first part of today’s reading of the verdict, the judges decided that there was no evidence that genocide had been committed on the whole territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but the position that genocide did in fact take place on the territory of Srebrenica in July 1995 was confirmed.

According to her, the International Court of Justice established that members of the Army of Republika Srpska did commit crimes in other parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but not genocide against Bosnian Muslims. “The Court did not find that mass murders had been committed with the intention to destroy Muslims as a national group”, the judge said. Referring to the execution of Bosnian detainees, which had been committed by members of a paramilitary unit from Serbia, the “Scorpions”, the Court decided that there was no evidence that this unit had been an organ of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, or that the crime was committed following orders of official Belgrade.

The highest court of the UN established also that “financial compensation would not be an appropriate means of reparation” for violated obligations, but that Bosnia and Herzegovina has the right to “a satisfaction”. According to the ruling, Serbia should extend “symbolic compensation” to Bosnia and Herzegovina and immediately establish full cooperation with The Hague Tribunal and extradite war crimes indictees, primarily Ratko Mladic. The Court made the same conclusion regarding expulsion, deportation, and destruction of Muslim cultural and religious objects, as previously stated in the Bosnian lawsuit.

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