Serbia condemned for Srebrenica despite acquittal on genocide charge

The world court yesterday acquitted the state of Serbia of responsibility for genocide in neighbouring Bosnia in the mid-1990s.

But in an unparalleled case concluded at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the UN's supreme judicial authority delivered a damning verdict on Serbia's role in the 1992-95 war, finding that Belgrade did nothing to prevent what the court described as an act of genocide at Srebrenica in 1995 despite its close links with and support for the Bosnian Serb military.

The Serbian authorities stood by as almost 8,000 Bosnian Muslim males were massacred by the Bosnian Serb military at Srebrenica in July 1995 despite the full knowledge that mass murder was likely, the court found. Serbia had also failed to honour its international duty to apprehend those charged with genocide.

The court ordered Serbia to arrest General Ratko Mladic, the architect of the massacre, who, as a result of yesterday's decision, will almost certainly be found guilty of genocide if put on trial at the war crimes tribunal, also in The Hague.

The verdict, delivered by a panel of 15 international jurists headed by the British judge Rosalyn Higgins, was under close scrutiny since it was the first time the International Court of Justice, the UN's highest judicial organ and commonly known as the world court, had been asked to rule on whether a state was guilty of genocide.

It was also the first time it had arbitrated a dispute stemming from the genocide convention, the treaty signed in 1948 as a result of the Nazi Holocaust of European Jewry.

Strikingly, the court ruled that the mass murder of almost 8,000 Bosnian Muslim males at Srebrenica at the end of the war in July 1995 was indeed an act of genocide, but that the widespread ethnic cleansing by the Bosnian Serbs mainly in 1992, when tens of thousands were killed and up to two million uprooted, was not.

Reading the decision, Justice Higgins said that Serbia "has not shown that it took any initiative to prevent what happened [at Srebrenica] or any action to avert the atrocities which were being committed".

This despite Belgrade's awareness of "a serious risk" of mass murder, as well as its financing and supplying of and "known influence" over the Bosnian Serb military.

"Serbia has violated the obligation to prevent genocide, under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in respect of the genocide that occurred in Srebrenica in July 1995," the decision stated. "Serbia has violated its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by having failed to transfer Ratko Mladic, indicted for genocide and complicity in genocide, for trial."

The world court adjudicates disputes between states, rather than individual criminal cases. Bosnia initiated its suit against Serbia 14 years ago and the panel of judges spent 10 months considering their decision.

They found that Serbia was not liable for war reparations to Bosnia.

"Serbia has not committed genocide, through its organs or persons whose acts engage its responsibility under customary international law," the court found. "Serbia has not conspired to commit genocide, nor incited the commission of genocide; Serbia has not been complicit in genocide."

The verdict was met with bitterness among Bosnian Muslim victims' relatives and the political leadership in Sarajevo, as well as some grim satisfaction.

On the 10th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre 18 months ago, the Serbian parliament brawled over a statement denouncing the crime and issued a declaration equating the mass murder with war crimes against Serbs.

Yesterday Serbia's pro-western, liberal president, Boris Tadic, called on the parliament to revive the discussion and deliver an unequivocal condemnation of the Srebrenica crime." Serbia is again being talked about in the context of war crimes and genocide," he said.

Guardian