UN to hear Croatia genocide claim against Serbia

[HorseArcher]

THE HAGUE (AFP) — The UN's highest court will hear a genocide claim lodged against Serbia by neighboring Croatia for alleged ethnic cleansing committed during the Croatian war of the early 1990s, judges ruled on Tuesday.
A panel of 17 judges dismissed a Serbian challenge to the International Court of Justice's competence to hear Croatia's complaint, a date for which will now be set and may take years.
"The court ... by ten votes to seven finds that ... the court has the jurisdiction to entertain the application by the Republic of Croatia," said presiding judge Rosalyn Higgins in The Hague.
The ruling paves the way for only the second genocide case to be brought before the ICJ, Serbia also having been the subject of the previous claim filed by Bosnia.
Croatia lodged a genocide complaint against Serbia at the ICJ in 1999, claiming "a form of genocide which resulted in large numbers of Croatian citizens being displaced, killed, tortured, or illegally detained as well as extensive property destruction".
But Serbia argued before the court in May that it had no jurisdiction to hear the case over alleged crimes committed during the 1991-95 Croatian war that claimed some 20,000 lives.
Serbia contended the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the name by which the federated state was formerly known, had not been a member of the UN nor a party to its convention on the prevention of genocide on the date Croatia's complaint was filed.
And it said the majority of the crimes outlined in the complaint were committed before the formation of the current republic.
Croatia's core complaint could not be heard before a decision had been made on Belgrade's objection to the court's jurisdiction.
Last year, the ICJ cleared Belgrade of genocide in Bosnia during the break-up of the former Yugoslav federation.
It judged the 1995 massacre of thousands of men and boys at Srebrenica in Bosnia to have been an act of genocide, without attributing direct responsibility to Serbia.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...7e-nc_dmji1_Ag

[Grof]

man this is bull .

[Bovril]

This should bring up some very interesting legal points. I wouldn't be surprised if it panned out the same way the Bosnia vs. Serbia case did, i.e. Serbia in breach of the convention for not prosecuting war criminals, but not guilty of genocide itself.

[Каие]

Brace yourselves gentlemen...expecting influx of Serbian, Russian and other Balkan members to be alerted by special e-mail immediately and proceeding to make this thread 5 pages within one hour.

[Pallantides]

the only internet cafe in belgrade is closed for renovation.

[Grof]

Brace yourselves gentlemen...expecting influx of Serbian, Russian and other Balkan members to be alerted by special e-mail immediately and proceeding to make this thread 5 pages within one hour.

omg what are we going to do its been more than one hour and its only one page.

I'm actually expecting a influx of people who don't know about the war.

a year before the war started I was playing in front of my house and I saw some people building something on top of a mountain overlooking the valley that I lived in. I asked my grandfather what it was and it turned out that the Croatians were building a bunker from which they could attack the valley below and it population. a year before the ing war even started.

do you know that the Croatian and Bosnian army were together at the beginning of the war with their goal being to drive out the Serbs, of course they couldn't do that on their own so the US and its toy pals had to help them. (And they didn't just drive us out, the Serbian population in Croatia was cleansed and whoever stayed was in most cases killed. Just look up the Medak Pocket its only one case of many like that, and look up operation Oluja, ethnic cleansing like never seen before.). Once they were successful in that they turned on each other and some of the biggest battles in that war were fought between Croats and Muslims.

The side that gained the most in that war was Croatia, after the war people were given money to build homes on Serbian and Muslim lands without any permission and this is within the borders of what would today be Bosnia and Herzegovina.

check your facts.

[Каие]

omg what are we going to do its been more than one hour and its only one page.

Either the only cyber cafe in the Balkans is closed, or all the members were permabanned after last times madness.

I'm actually expecting a influx of people who don't know about the war.

Are you including yourself in that?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I'm joking...

check your facts.

You misunderstand my position then....If it was up to me I'd arrest all the criminals from all sides of that most disgusting war, but as we know History is written by the winners.

[Bovril]

Are there any Croatian posters on these boards?

[HorseArcher]

Brace yourselves gentlemen...expecting influx of Serbian, Russian and other Balkan members to be alerted by special e-mail immediately and proceeding to make this thread 5 pages within one hour.

Yes. the Fate of the UN ruling will hang in the balance of the opinions and web links quoted in this thread, on TW Center. This is it.

[Каие]

Yes. the Fate of the UN ruling will hang in the balance of the opinions and web links quoted in this thread, on TW Center. This is it.

Imagine what life would be like if that was true....

[Erik]

Are there any Croatian posters on these boards?

No, they ethnically cleaned this board months ago.

we were not in the UN club at the time ...morons...

Apparently, the UN's high court has just ruled that this isn't a problem.

[Osamah]

I heard Serbs were the main cause for the YU war tho but I never heard that Serbs killed Croats. But this is interesting, new knowledge.

[eizo]

I heard Serbs were the main cause for the YU war tho but I never heard that Serbs killed Croats. But this is interesting, new knowledge.

...i think this is how hague tribunal works ...


Can't wait for this, i just love the part when they are gonna show and prove that half a million Serbs that were forced out,committed few genocides here and there...and the our occupation gov has a great defense tactic,we were not in the UN club at the time ...morons...

[YuriVII]

If UN ruled the way they did in Bosnia, they would probably do the same in Croatia. I think Bosnia had a better claim to this. In addition, this will open the way for Serbia to countersuit based on the Srbsky Krai situations.

[Bovril]

Well now I know that the Serbs were inocent victims and the Croatians and Bosnians were bloodthirsty murderers. Its a good thing you corrected my opinion, you see, I talked to a Croat who said the exact opposite. It couldn't possibly be that there were bloodthristy murderers and innocent victims on both sides.

[YuriVII]

So I am taking it you live in the Republic of Serbia right now and not your area in Croatia?

The war was stupid, there is no real difference between the factions is religion. Croats are Catholic, Bosnians are Muslim, Serbs are Orthodox. They all speak the same language (with dialectical differences of course).

I think what our Serbian friend is protesting against is the prosecution against Serbs when Croats did the same thing and don't suffer any such IOC dramas.

[Grof]

Well now I know that the Serbs were inocent victims and the Croatians and Bosnians were bloodthirsty murderers. Its a good thing you corrected my opinion, you see, I talked to a Croat who said the exact opposite. It couldn't possibly be that there were bloodthristy murderers and innocent victims on both sides.

There were guilty people on all sides but only the Serbs got a bad rep from it.

So I am taking it you live in the Republic of Serbia right now and not your area in Croatia?

The war was stupid, there is no real difference between the factions is religion. Croats are Catholic, Bosnians are Muslim, Serbs are Orthodox. They all speak the same language (with dialectical differences of course).

I think what our Serbian friend is protesting against is the prosecution against Serbs when Croats did the same thing and don't suffer any such IOC dramas.

I never lived in Croatia, I was born in Mostar and lived in a small town called Zitomislici. Now I live in Canada.

And you are correct that's what I'm protesting about.
The world thinks that as soon as you say your a Serb that you killed people. But when you say your one of the other 2 sides than you were a victim of Serbs. And people think there were no Serbs killed in that war.

[Personified Boredom]

That however, I would willingly blame on the Serbs.

What happened there was lamentable.

As far as PR goes however, you all [the Serbs] dug yourself a massive, massive hole. I don't know how long it's going to take Serbia to clamber out either.

[Grof]

That however, I would willingly blame on the Serbs.

What happened there was lamentable.

As far as PR goes however, you all [the Serbs] dug yourself a massive, massive hole. I don't know how long it's going to take Serbia to clamber out either.

how did we all (the serbs) dig our self a massive hole??

[Personified Boredom]

I recalled watching that on the news in high school.

The camps people were stuffed in, the cleansing, you fellows didn't even try to hide it. Not a smart way to engage in genocide. The Croats? The Bosniaks? All the they did, we in the west didn't hear about it until roughly Kosovo started up. Five years later.