Serbia Guilty of Not Preventing Genocide of Muslims, But Not Guilty of Comitting Genocide

The New York Times reports that yesterday the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued a decision in Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro, (Summary of Judgment). In the case, Bosnia had sued Serbia civilly for committing genocide in the massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995. The court found that Serbia was not guilty of committing genocide, but that it did violate its obligation to prevent genocide. It found that Serbia also violated its treaty obligations when it failed to transfer Ratko Mladić to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Details of the decision are discussed in ICJ Press Release 2007/8.