International Court Clears Serbia of Direct Responsibility for Bosnian Genocide

The International Court of Justice in the Hague ruled that Serbia is not directly responsible for the genocide of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995, but its leaders failed to use their clear influence to prevent the massacre.

In handing down its ruling Monday, the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands was strongly critical of Serbia, but it also rejected Bosnia's request for financial compensation. Bosnia-Herzegovina filed a suit accusing former Yugoslavia of masterminding the widespread ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims and Croats during the Balkan conflict of the 1990s.

A judgment in favor of Bosnia-Herzegovina could have resulted in Serbia paying billions of dollars in reparations. U.N.'s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia already has convicted a number of individuals for war crimes, including genocide, during the war in Bosnia.

海牙国际法庭裁决，塞尔维亚对1995年在斯雷布雷尼察发生的对波黑穆斯林的种族灭绝不负有直接责任，但是塞尔维亚领导人没有利用他们所具有的影响力来阻止大屠杀发生。

荷兰海牙国际法庭星期一做出的这一裁决对塞尔维亚持有强烈批评的态度，但同时也驳回了波斯尼亚提出的赔偿要求。波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那此前控告前南斯拉夫在1990年代巴尔干冲突期间策划了对波斯尼亚的穆斯林和克罗地亚人的大规模种族灭绝。

如果国际法庭做出对波斯尼亚有利的裁决，塞尔维亚就可能被迫支付几十亿美元的赔款。联合国南斯拉夫国际刑事法庭此前已经判定一些人在波斯尼亚战争期间犯有战争罪，包括种族灭绝罪。