Court to decide if Serbia is responsible for genocide

The UN’s highest court will deliver its judgment on Monday on Bosnia’s demand to make Serbia accountable for the slaughter, terrorising, rape and displacement of Bosnian Muslims in the early 1990s.

If it rules for Bosnia, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, could open the way for compensation amounting to billions of euros from Serbia, the successor state of Slobodan Milosevic’s Yugoslavia, although specific claims would be addressed only later.

It also would be a permanent stain on Serbia in the eyes of history, regardless of any effort by Belgrade to distance itself from the brutality of those years.

Reflecting the complexities, the 16 judges have taken 10 months to deliberate since hearing the final arguments last May. Officials at the World Court, as it is informally known, say just the summary of the judgment is likely to take three hours for Judge Rosalyn Higgins, the court president, to read.

The court was created after World War II to adjudicate disputes among UN members, most often involving contentious borders or alleged treaty violations. Its decisions are binding, without appeal, and subject to enforcement by the Security Council if necessary.

Seldom before has it had to deal with issues that go to the heart of a nation.

Dozens of Bosnian survivors, including women from Srebrenica where some 8,000 men were killed in July 1995, were expected to stand vigil outside the baroque Peace Palace while the decision is being read.

The ruling comes 14 years after Bosnia first approached the court during the chaos of Yugoslavia’s bloody disintegration.

The political landscape has changed dramatically since then, with both countries separately aspiring to join the EU.