UN court rejects Croatia, Serbia genocide claims

(Vatican Radio) The United Nations' top court has ruled that Serbia and Croatia did not commit genocide against each other's people during the 1990s  Balkan wars sparked by the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Supporters of that decision say the ruling could help put to rest lingering tensions between the Balkan neighbours, but survivors have expressed anger.  Regional correspondent Stefan Bos reports:

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Presiding judge Peter Tomka of the International Court of Justice in The Hague believes Serb forces have committed widespread crimes in heavily Catholic Croatia, early in the war. But he said, "Croatia has failed to substantiate its allegations that genocide was committed."

The Croatian government had alleged that Serbia committed genocide in the town of Vukovar and elsewhere in 1991. Amid heavy fighting, tens of thousands of ethnic Croats were displaced, and about 260 Croat men were detained and killed in the area.

That's why Kata Lozanic from Vukovar is surprised about Tuesday's court ruling. "Vukovar was destroyed, ranging from cultural sites and nature to people," she recalled. Everything was destroyed. If that's not genocide, done in such a way, I don't know what it is."  

Yet court president Tomka also rejected a counter-claim by Serbia over the expulsion of more than 200,000 Serbs from Croatia. "What is generally called ethnic cleansing does not in itself constitute a form of genocide," he argued.  "Genocide presupposes the intend physically to destroy in whole or in part a human group as such and not merely a desire to expel it from a specific territory," Tomka explained.

In a reaction, Serbian Justice Minister Nikola Selkovic said the court's rejection of both claims would usher in "a much better page in bilateral relations with neighbouring Croatia. But his Croatian counterpart, Orsat Miljenic, wasn't sure, saying Belgrade should do more to prosecute suspected war criminals.

As many as 20,000 people died during the war between Croats and Serbs, which lasted from 1991 through 1995.