Bosnia to appeal ruling clearing Serbia of genocide
Bosnia says it will appeal a UN court ruling that cleared Serbia of genocide against ethnic Muslims during the violent breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Bakir Izetbegovic, the Bosniak member of the three-man presidency of Bosnia, said he will officially forward the request to revise the ruling to the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) next week.
"Everyone needs the truth, even those who oppose it, a truth that will be written by international judges, experienced and impartial," Izetbegovic told reporters.
In its 2007 judgement, the court exonerated Serbia of direct responsibility for killings, rapes and "ethnic cleansing," only saying Serbia had failed in its responsibility to prevent genocide which killed more than 100,000.
The ICJ found only one act of genocide -- the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim males by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica -- and claimed that there was not enough evidence to suggest Serbia was directly responsible for the mass carnage.
Serb forces captured the eastern town in July 1995, in the final months of the conflict, then summarily killed its men and boys in Europe's worst single atrocity since World War II.
Bosnian Serb officials claim such a plea cannot be submitted without consensus within the tripartite presidency. They say such a move could trigger a new political crisis in the Balkan nation that remains deeply divided along ethnic lines since the 1992-1995 bloody carnage of Bosnian Muslims by Serbian forces.
On Tuesday, Bosnia’s Serb presidency member Mladen Ivanic said an appeal by Muslim officials would "threaten peace and stability" in the country.
Izetbegovic insisted that Muslims would go ahead with the request. He said Bosnia's legal team has "new arguments," notably those presented during the trial of Bosnian Serb wartime army chief Ratko Mladic, who is awaiting judgment at a UN tribunal.
In Belgrade, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic described the Bosnian decision as "difficult and bad" for ties between the two neighboring nations.
"Despite everything, I'm convinced that we will manage to preserve our national interests," the local Blic daily’s online edition quoted him as saying.
"We will continue to talk with Bosnian officials, wishing to assure a lasting peace in the Balkans," Vucic added.
Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik meanwhile urged ethnic Serb politicians to "challenge the legitimacy" of the demand for revision with the ICJ.
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