Bosnia appeals UN court’s Serbia genocide ruling

Photo:AFP

Bosnia has formally asked the UN’s top court to review its ruling which cleared Serbia of genocide in the 1990s, Bosnia’s Muslim leader has said, the BBC reports.

Bakir Izetbegovic, a member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, said he was seeking “truth and justice”.

Bosnian Serb officials warned the move would trigger a “serious crisis” in the country.

In 2007, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) cleared Serbia of direct responsibility for genocide.

The ICJ found only one act of genocide during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war – the massacre of about 8,000 Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces in the town of Srebrenica in 1995.

It was Europe’s worst atrocity since World War Two.

The ICJ ruled that Serbia had violated international law by failing to prevent the killings, but absolved it of direct responsibility.

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS