The United Nations' top court ruled this week that Serbia and Croatia did not commit genocide against each other's people during the bloody 1990s wars sparked by the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
The International Court of Justice said Tuesday that Serb forces committed widespread crimes in Croatia early in the war, but they did not amount to genocide. The 17-judge panel then ruled that a 1995 Croat offensive to win back territory from rebel Serbs featured serious crimes, but also did not reach the level of genocide.
Rebecca Cruise, the assistant dean of the University of Oklahoma’s College of International Studies who studies post-conflict resolution with a regional focus on Southeastern and Central Europe, says there’s a United Nations-approved spectrum to categorize war crimes.
“To be classified as genocide you have to have some sort of systematic approach to eradicate a people. Whereas if you're talking about ethnic cleansing, this is the removal of a people from a certain area,” Cruise says. “Oftentimes those things come hand-in-hand. But in terms of the wars in the former Yugoslavia, really the only case that's been shown to be proven as genocide has been Srebrenica.”
The ruling could help put to rest lingering animosities between the Balkan neighbors.
This [has been] almost 20 years, and Croatia is part of the European Union, they are part of NATO. Serbia would like to be part of NATO, perhaps at some point part of the European Union. They seem to go back and forth on that,” Cruise says. “But maybe this will help them move forward. This kind of null decision here.”
----------------------------------------------------
KGOU and World Views rely on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners to further its mission of public service with internationally focused reporting for Oklahoma and beyond. To contribute to our efforts, make your donation online, or contact our Membership department.
