ICJ dismisses Croatia, Serbia genocide claims

THE HAGUE - The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague dismissed on Tuesday Croatia's claim and Serbia's counter-claim of genocide in their entirety, thus putting an end to the dispute between the two states that lasted 15 years and a half.

According to the reasoning behind the judgment read by ICJ President Peter Tomka, neither has Croatia established that the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serb forces committed genocide in its territory, nor has Serbia proven the existence of genocide or genocidal intent during and before Operation Storm.

Croatia has failed to prove that there was a conspiracy to commit genocide. Croatia's claim is dismissed in its entirety, reads the ICJ judgment.

Croatia has not established that the only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the pattern of conduct of the JNA and Serb forces in the territory of Croatia was the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Croat group, Tomka said.

The acts were not committed with the specific intent required for acts of genocide, the judge said, recalling that ICTY has never brought charges against anyone for genocide in the territory of Croatia from 1991 to 1995.

He recalled that former FRY president Slobodan Milosevic had not been charged with the genocide in Croatia before the ICTY as the indictment against him only included the crime committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Srebrenica).

The ICJ president explained that it has not been proven that the intent of Serb forces and the JNA was physical destruction of the protected group of Croats, but rather punishment or forced displacement, which, as he stressed, cannot be characterized as genocide.

Tomka added that other judgments of the ICTY, such as the judgment in the...