The International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled on February 26 that the massacre of 8000 Muslim men in Srebrenica (Bosnia) during 1992-1995 was genocide, but Serbia was not directly responsible.
In the ruling, the president of the court, Judge Rosalyn Higgins, said: The court finds that the acts of genocide at Srebrenica cannot be attributed to the respondents (Serbia) state organs. Serbia was thus acquitted on a serious allegation, but, the court said, it had broken international law by failing to stop the killings.
The case was the first in history where a whole country was charged with genocide by another country. Should the court had found in favour of Bosnia, it would have sought large financial compensation, and this, Bloomberg news agency commented, would have meant Serbia going bankrupt. The court rejected Bosnias claim for reparations. Financial compensation is not the appropriate form of reparation, the ruling said. The war crimes tribunal in The Hague has already found individuals guilty of genocide in Bosnia. The two main suspects Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are still free.
Serbia was relieved at the court ruling. Serbian president Boris Tadic urged parliament to pass a declaration to condemn the crime in Srebrenica without any doubt. Prime minister Vojislav Kostunica said that The Hague ruling was of extreme importance, as it freed Serbia from the serious accusation that it had committed genocide. From now on, he said, the only way to achieve peace in the region of former Yugoslavia was to punish those responsible for the genocide, radio B92 reported. With this court ruling an important page from the past was closed and this will allow for better relations within Bosnia as well as between Bosnia and Serbia. This was the position of Serbias speaker of parliament Igor Radojicic. Serbias name might have been cleared, but with this court ruling, Bosnia will not be at peace for a long time.
The decision by The Hague disappointed Bosnian Muslims and Croats. The Bosnian Muslim member of the countrys tripartite presidency, Haris Silajdzic, said he was disappointed at the outcome. However, he welcomed the fact that the court had ruled that Serbia and Montenegro had violated the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by not preventing or punishing the perpetrators of the genocide, the BBC reported on February 27. The same view was taken by Zeljko Komsic, Croat member of the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We in Bosnia have known since the beginning of the war what happened here and what we will teach our children, he said, as quoted by Bulgarian daily Dnevnik.
International reactions at the trial outcome were largely positive. Bulgarian news agency BTA reported that the European Union hoped that the court decision would contribute towards closure of a painful historic moment in the region. The German presidency of the EU urged Serbia to use todays judgment as a further opportunity to distance itself from the crimes committed by the Milosevic regime. The EU called on all European countries to respect the decision. It hoped that the democratic forces in Serbia, which won the elections, would soon form a new government to continue reforms and help for overcoming of the past.
The High Representative of the EU for foreign policy and security Javier Solana welcomed The Hagues decision. Todays decision must be embraced. What we highly appreciate is the fact that there was no collective sanction, he said at a news conference in Brussels. Solana added he hoped that the ruling of the most important court in the world would at last bring peace between peoples in the region.
The US also welcomed the trials outcome. Agence France-Presse reported that the US saw the decision as an opportunity for reconciliation with the past. We want to encourage the people in this region to use take this opportunity and take on the route to peace and healing of the scars from the historic division, said US state department spokesperson Sean McCormack. He underlined that Serbia had to now work hard to find those responsible for the genocide, such as Ratko Mladic.
