Report: Court to reject Bosnia’s genocide suit

This is likley the only way to promote reconciliation between the communities in Bosnia. Certainly, a guilty verdict would have been very damaging for ethnic relations as Bosnia's Serbs never supported the action and as Serbia was not given the right of any counter claims. The West has learned that if it wants a pro-Western Serbia it needs to make concessions to its people. This way, War Crimes will be individualized and the Serbs less offended by the idea of trials-if that is possible. A Serb people "branded" as genocidal would have ensured a permanent agitation for the West in the "soft underbelly of Europe"

I am almost sure that the real name of this Canadian is Matthew! I disagree completely with this opinion. What happened in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995 is an attempted genocide.

First point, the charge of genocide leveled by the Bosnian state was directed at the state of Serbia, not the people of Serbia. The Bosnian side needed to prove that the alleged genocide was organized by the Serbian state. The Hague court can only try "the state" as a legal person, not individuals.
Second point, there is legitimate and non-nationalistic disagreement amongst international legal scholars and political scientists as to whether or not the war in Bosnia involved genocide. See Michael Mann's work for a positive affirmation of the Bosnian war as genocidal, but different from Rwanda, the Holocaust and Armeia.
Mark Wolfgram

Victor,

Try and educate yourself about the conflict before spouting incorrect statements. Try reading: Media Cleansing by Peter Brock. If you still have this opinion then your are racially biased and won't accept facts.

Ivan, everything has been written about the conflict: call it a war or a civil war, it was clear from the beginning that it was a massive operation of racial purification, as established by Biljana Plavsic, the architect of the joint criminal enterprise. The term is fiffrent from ethnic cleansing, which is not yet legally defined by the court.

When it is defined, we will understand that killing, rape and other violence used to expel the targeted groups, and these were all means of "destroying" them as peoples - which is how genocide has been understood since it was first defined by Raphael Lemkin in 1944.

Lemkin had originally argued that genocide was comprehensive social destruction, attacking the economic, political and cultural foundations of the life of particular nations and groups as well as, often, their physical existence.

I hope that these few definitions help you to understand that a genocide was planned against the Muslims in Bosnia and executed by the Serbs in order to create GREATER SERBIA.

My source actually comes from the Bosnian media which has said recently that "Bosniak officials are concerned that the court is also in on the Kosovo deal and could return a "not guilty" verdict in order to smooth things over for Kosovo's independence."

Victor clearly hasn’t read my comments on the earlier articles in regards to these charges. I actually believed they would find Serbia guilty as Genocide is defined in the legal statutes as basically committing any hate crime against a group “in whole or in part”. I actually do support Serbia paying some form of restitution to Bosnia (Croatia should as well, Mostar is still in ruins). However, if Serbia is in fact found not guilty, I think that’s a good thing for the legal definition of genocide, I think it should only be applied in situations as horrible as the Jewish Holocaust and not for criminal acts such as Ethnic Cleansing. We need something that allows Bosnia to sue Serbia and Croatia for hate crimes and Ethnic Cleansing. I am glad they decided not to insult the memory of those who lost their lives in WWII, which was a true genocide by all definitions of the word.

Hello Viktor,
if is this the same Viktor that justified ethnic cleansing in Croatia, Operation storm "the civilians deserved it, because they were there" perhaps then you should apply the same rigour of your argument to your own case and accuse yourself of being racially biased!

Victor, Serbia had no means(army or police)to commit genocide in Bosnia!

So how would you define the massacre that happened in Srebrenica but genocide...it was planned and executed by the army who was aware of what they were doing...can we define genocide by number saying that to comitt genocide we need 1 million or 2 millions? Unfortunately Milosevic died...In my opinion, the verdict could have been different if he were still alive because it is known that he was in direct relations with the Serbian army that comitted the massacres...and for Goran...how do you explain those so called 'weekend killers' coming to kill over Bosnia and Herzegovina and then returning to Serbia and Montenegro?We all know Germany was guilty for holocaust and the German individuals who were persecuted afterwards, so it is important to state the general 'guilt' and then individual one. I don't think that if Serbia is to be found guilty will affect the relations between B&H and Serbia but offer some sort of consolation to the mothers of those disappeared and killed.

This is likley the only way to promote reconciliation between the communities in Bosnia. Certainly, a guilty verdict would have been very damaging for ethnic relations as Bosnia's Serbs never supported the action and as Serbia was not given the right of any counter claims. The West has learned that if it wants a pro-Western Serbia it needs to make concessions to its people. This way, War Crimes will be individualized and the Serbs less offended by the idea of trials-if that is possible. A Serb people "branded" as genocidal would have ensured a permanent agitation for the West in the "soft underbelly of Europe"

I am almost sure that the real name of this Canadian is Matthew! I disagree completely with this opinion. What happened in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995 is an attempted genocide.

First point, the charge of genocide leveled by the Bosnian state was directed at the state of Serbia, not the people of Serbia. The Bosnian side needed to prove that the alleged genocide was organized by the Serbian state. The Hague court can only try "the state" as a legal person, not individuals.
Second point, there is legitimate and non-nationalistic disagreement amongst international legal scholars and political scientists as to whether or not the war in Bosnia involved genocide. See Michael Mann's work for a positive affirmation of the Bosnian war as genocidal, but different from Rwanda, the Holocaust and Armeia.
Mark Wolfgram

Victor,

Try and educate yourself about the conflict before spouting incorrect statements. Try reading: Media Cleansing by Peter Brock. If you still have this opinion then your are racially biased and won't accept facts.

Ivan, everything has been written about the conflict: call it a war or a civil war, it was clear from the beginning that it was a massive operation of racial purification, as established by Biljana Plavsic, the architect of the joint criminal enterprise. The term is fiffrent from ethnic cleansing, which is not yet legally defined by the court.

When it is defined, we will understand that killing, rape and other violence used to expel the targeted groups, and these were all means of "destroying" them as peoples - which is how genocide has been understood since it was first defined by Raphael Lemkin in 1944.

Lemkin had originally argued that genocide was comprehensive social destruction, attacking the economic, political and cultural foundations of the life of particular nations and groups as well as, often, their physical existence.

I hope that these few definitions help you to understand that a genocide was planned against the Muslims in Bosnia and executed by the Serbs in order to create GREATER SERBIA.

My source actually comes from the Bosnian media which has said recently that "Bosniak officials are concerned that the court is also in on the Kosovo deal and could return a "not guilty" verdict in order to smooth things over for Kosovo's independence."

Victor clearly hasn’t read my comments on the earlier articles in regards to these charges. I actually believed they would find Serbia guilty as Genocide is defined in the legal statutes as basically committing any hate crime against a group “in whole or in part”. I actually do support Serbia paying some form of restitution to Bosnia (Croatia should as well, Mostar is still in ruins). However, if Serbia is in fact found not guilty, I think that’s a good thing for the legal definition of genocide, I think it should only be applied in situations as horrible as the Jewish Holocaust and not for criminal acts such as Ethnic Cleansing. We need something that allows Bosnia to sue Serbia and Croatia for hate crimes and Ethnic Cleansing. I am glad they decided not to insult the memory of those who lost their lives in WWII, which was a true genocide by all definitions of the word.

Hello Viktor,
if is this the same Viktor that justified ethnic cleansing in Croatia, Operation storm "the civilians deserved it, because they were there" perhaps then you should apply the same rigour of your argument to your own case and accuse yourself of being racially biased!

Victor, Serbia had no means(army or police)to commit genocide in Bosnia!

So how would you define the massacre that happened in Srebrenica but genocide...it was planned and executed by the army who was aware of what they were doing...can we define genocide by number saying that to comitt genocide we need 1 million or 2 millions? Unfortunately Milosevic died...In my opinion, the verdict could have been different if he were still alive because it is known that he was in direct relations with the Serbian army that comitted the massacres...and for Goran...how do you explain those so called 'weekend killers' coming to kill over Bosnia and Herzegovina and then returning to Serbia and Montenegro?We all know Germany was guilty for holocaust and the German individuals who were persecuted afterwards, so it is important to state the general 'guilt' and then individual one. I don't think that if Serbia is to be found guilty will affect the relations between B&H and Serbia but offer some sort of consolation to the mothers of those disappeared and killed.