Reuters AlertNet Lite - Bosnian Muslims, Croats disappointed by U.N. ruling

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Bosnian Muslims, Croats disappointed by U.N. ruling

26 Feb 2007 13:33:30 GMT
Source: Reuters

SARAJEVO, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Bosnia's Muslim and Croats were disappointed by a ruling of the U.N.'s highest court on Monday that Serbia did not commit genocide in Srebrenica in 1995 nor did it conspire with Bosnian Serbs to carry out genocide.

The International Court of Justice also said there was not enough evidence to prove genocide against non-Serbs took place in the 1992-95 war in other parts of Bosnia.

"I am sorry that Serbia and Montenegro were not convicted of genocide and that they were not convicted of conspiracy in genocide," the Bosnian presidency's Muslim member Haris Silajzic told Bosnian television.

Silajdzic's Croat colleague Zeljko Komsic said he was "disappointed" the ruling did not class as genocide other crimes in the war in which at least 100,000 people died, three quarters of them Muslims and Croats.

"We who were in Bosnia know what happened here right from the beginning of the war and I know what I will teach my kids," Komsic said.

"This makes me cry. This is no verdict, no solution. This is a disaster for our people," said 60-year-old Fatija Suljic who lost her husband and three sons in the Srebrenica atrocity.

Bosnian Serbs, backed up by Belgrade and the former Yugoslav army, carved out their Serb Republic early in the war after ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Croats. They held several towns, including Sarajevo, under siege throughout the war.

Silajdzic noted the ICJ ruling found that Serbia, successor state to what was left of Yugoslavia, guilty of failing to prevent genocide and punish its perpetrators.

"This ruling is not complete but it still includes a fact about the breach of the convention on genocide," he said.

"That's why we need to change the system and the (Bosnian) constitution that are a direct result of the genocide," said Silajdzic, who advocates abolition of Bosnia's two postwar autonomous regions under the 1995 Dayton peace treaty.

He and other Muslims say the Serb Republic was founded on genocide and the post-war division in the once-mixed country was unjust and unnatural.

Bosnian Serbs opposed the lawsuit considered by the court which was filed by Bosnia's Muslim-led government in 1993. (Additional reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic)

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Last updated:Mon Feb 26 13:34:28 2007