Top UN court rejects genocide claims

Court ruled that neither Croatia nor Serbia committed genocide against each other’s populations during the Balkan wars

THE HAGUE: The United Nations’ highest court on Tuesday ruled that neither Croatia nor Serbia committed genocide against each other’s populations during the Balkan wars that followed the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Both sides said they hoped the ruling would mark a watershed in relations, long since improved but still sometimes frosty.

Peter Tomka, president of the International Court of Justice, said that many crimes had been committed by both countries’ forces during the conflict, but that the intent to commit genocide - by “destroying a population in whole or in part” - had not been proven against either country.

“Croatia has failed to substantiate its claim that genocide was committed,” Tomka said.A 17-judge bench ruled that the acts committed by the Serbs had not intended to “destroy” the Croatian ethnic group in certain areas of Croatia claimed by Serb secessionists, but to “move them by force”.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2015.