UN court to decide whether Serbia committed genocide
The United Nations’ highest court will today rule whether Serbia is guilty of genocide for the killing, torture, rape and expulsion of Bosnian Muslims – the first time an entire nation is being held to judicial account for the ultimate crime.
Bosnia has said the government in Belgrade under then-president Slobodan Milosevic armed, financed and encouraged Bosnian Serbs to conduct an ethnic cleansing campaign that amounted to genocide in an attempt to create a “Greater Serbia” during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.
Serbia has said it was not responsible for the actions of Serb paramilitary groups, that the war was a conflict among ethnic groups, and that there was no intent to destroy Bosnia’s Muslim population in whole or in part – a key element in genocide as defined in the 1948 Genocide Convention.
If it rules against Serbia, the court could order Belgrade to pay compensation, which would be determined in negotiations. Bosnia has said Serbia should pay restitution for life and property to both the victims and to the Bosnian state, claims that could total billions of pounds.
Before ruling on Bosnia’s suit, the court must announce its decision on Serbia’s challenge to its jurisdiction.
The International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, can only adjudicate disputes among UN member states. The UN Security Council suspended Yugoslavia’s membership in 1992 and readmitted the country, then known as Serbia-Montenegro, in 2001. Serbia argues that its actions are not liable for the court’s scrutiny during its period of international limbo.
Legal experts say the court’s lengthy deliberations – it has been 10 months since it concluded hearings – is a strong indication it will strike down Serbia’s challenge.
The case is being watched with passion in both Serbia and Bosnia.
Dozens of survivors said they will stage a vigil outside the Peace Palace, the court’s seat, while Judge Rosalyn Higgins of Britain reads the decision.
“We are going to show everybody that the victims are still waiting for justice,” Munira Subasic, the head of the Association Mothers of Srebrenica, said in Sarajevo. “We know they cannot give us our dead sons, brothers and husbands back but they can give us back our dignity.”
However, half of Bosnia hopes it will lose the case. As part of a 1995 peace accord, Bosnia is split into a Muslim-Croat federation with a Bosnian Serb state, known as Republika Srpska. Bosnian Serbs claim the lawsuit in The Hague is illegal since it was brought at a time when the country was at war and the Bosnian Serbs were not part of the government that filed the charges.
“Whatever it will be, Republika Srpska will not accept the verdict and will not implement it,” Milorad Dodik, the state’s prime minister, said earlier this month.
In Belgrade, the head of the Serb legal team, Radoslav Stojanovic, said if Serbia is convicted, “it would have far-reaching consequences which would burden our future for decades.”
Bosnia submitted its genocide case to the court in 1993. Since then, the separate International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which judges individuals accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, has determined that the Serb onslaught in at least one instance, the attack on the Srebrenica enclave in 1995, amounted to genocide.
Two Bosnian Serb army officers were convicted of complicity in genocide or aiding and abetting genocide.
Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president, also was brought to trial on genocide charges but died in the UN jail in The Hague last March, just weeks before his four-year-long trial was due to end.
