THE HAGUE, Feb 26: The UN’s top court on Monday cleared Serbia of direct involvement in genocide during the war in Bosnia, but said Belgrade did breach international law by failing to prevent the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica.

It was the first-ever ruling in a genocide case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), set up to deal with disputes between states.

“The court finds that Serbia has not committed genocide,” ICJ president Rosalyn Higgins said.

Bosnia had accused Serbia of masterminding a genocide through widespread `ethnic cleansing’ during the brutal 1992-95 war that left more than 200,000 people dead.

The ICJ found that `massive killings’ and atrocities occurred throughout Bosnia, with Bosnian Muslims being the victims in many cases.

However, it stressed most events did not amount to genocide because `the evidence did not show that these terrible acts were accompanied by the specific intent to destroy a group that is the required proof of genocide’, Higgins told journalists after the judgement.

The ICJ found only one act of genocide -- the massacre at Srebrenica of nearly 8,000 Muslims by Bosnian Serb troops -- and said there was not enough evidence to suggest Belgrade was directly responsible.

However, it ruled that Serbia had failed in its responsibility under the 1948 genocide convention to try and prevent the killings.

Serbian President Boris Tadic welcomed the judgement and called on the Serbian parliament to pass a declaration “condemning the crime in Srebrenica without any doubt”.

The Srebrenica massacre is the only event in the Bosnian war that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the UN's ad hoc war crimes court, has ruled a genocide. The ICTY has so far handed down two genocide convictions against Bosnian Serb officers who captured the town.

While the ICJ ruled that Belgrade had given “considerable military and financial support” to the Bosnian Serb leadership, the court found it did not mastermind the slaughter in Srebrenica.

“The decision to kill the adult male population of the Muslim community was taken by some members of the main staff of the (Bosnian Serb army) but without instructions from or effective control by (Serbia),” the court said.

But Higgins stressed the case had also “conclusively proved” that the Serbian leadership, and former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in particular, “were fully aware ... that massacres were likely to occur”.

“It must have been clear that there was a serious risk of genocide in Srebrenica,” she added.

Despite Serbia's failure to intervene, the court ruled that Belgrade will not have to pay any financial compensation to Sarajevo, which could have run into hundreds of millions of euros.

Instead, it called on Belgrade to fully cooperate with the ICTY and deliver, among others, Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, who has been indicted for genocide over the Srebrenica massacre and is thought to be hiding in Serbia.

For his part, Tadic accepted that Serbia would face “dramatic political and economic consequences” if it failed to cooperate.

The German EU presidency said it hoped the verdict would close “a painful chapter in the history” of the former Yugoslavia and called on Belgrade to distance itself from the crimes committed in the Milosevic era.

There was a mixed reaction in Bosnia, with Bosnian Muslims and Croats condemning the court's ruling while Bosnian Serbs hailed the decision.

“Europe has once again proved that it is against Muslims,” said Munira Subasic, who lost 22 family members in the Srebrenica massacre and runs an organisation of survivors.

International law expert Geraldine Mattioli of Human Rights Watch said the historic verdict “highlights the difficulty of proving genocide which has a very high threshold”.—AFP