A Bosnian Muslim woman reacts Feb. 26 to the International Court of Justice decision on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. AP PHOTO

The case marked the first time a state had been taken to court over allegations of genocide.

In a historic ruling that drew on evidence presented at the nearby Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, the International Court of Justice said Feb. 26 that the massacre by Bosnian Serb forces of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys at the U.N.-protected Srebrenica enclave was an act of genocide.

But the 15-judge panel rejected Bosnia's claim that the Serbian state was responsible for the killing, saying that it did not control the Bosnian Serb forces it had helped arm and finance.

Instead, the judges ruled that Belgrade stood by and allowed the massacre to happen.

Serbia, "could, and should, have acted to prevent the genocide," the court's president, Rosalyn Higgins, said.

Higgins also condemned Serbia's failure to hand over Mladic, indicted years ago by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for genocide in the Srebrenica killings.

The court said there was "information suggesting that Gen. Mladic . . . was in Serbia on several occasions and for substantial periods during the last few years.

The ruling that Serbia was not responsible for genocide sparked outrage in Bosnia, which filed the case, and among dozens of war survivors who gathered outside the gates of the International Court of Justice.

The Japan Times Weekly: March 3, 2007
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