MOSCOW/BELGRADE, February 3 (RAPSI) - The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague refused to sustain mutual claims by Serbia and Croatia accusing each other of genocide during the military conflict after the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991-1995, RIA Novosti reports.
A panel of 17 judges within the UN court rejected Serbia’s claim that accuses Croatia of genocide. Earlier on Tuesday, the court also rejected a similar claim by Croatia against Serbia.
Croatia first filed a claim with the ICJ in 1999 against Yugoslavia (and its successor Serbia), claiming that the officials in Belgrade committed genocide “against citizens of Croatia” during the 1991 war.
Serbia responded with a counter-claim in 2010, stating that during Operation Storm in 1995 the Croatian armed forces committed genocide in the Serbian autonomy Kninska Krajina. That happened when the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina, a territorial entity of Croatian Serbs, was destroyed.