Bosnia to appeal UN court ruling clearing Serbia of genocide

SARAJEVO, Bosnia – Bosnia will ask the United Nation’s top court to reconsider its 2007 ruling that cleared Serbia of genocide during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.

Bakir Izetbegovic, Muslim Bosniak member of the county’s tripartite presidency, announced Friday the request will be submitted before Feb. 26, when the deadline for appealing expires. The appeal will be initiated despite a lack of consent from his Croat and Serb counterparts in the presidency.

The decision is expected to plunge Bosnia into a political crisis, as Bosnian Serb legislators plan to boycott parliament to show their opposition.

However, Izetbegovic insists no new approval is required, as Bosnia’s legal representative in the case will simply submit an appeal.

Bosnia sued neighbouring Serbia before the International Court of Justice in 1993 over its political and military backing for Bosnian Serbs’ war effort.

The U.N. court ruled in 2007 that a 1995 massacre in the Bosnian city of Srebrenica of 8,000 Muslims by Bosnian Serbs was genocide, but it cleared Serbia of responsibility for the killings. It did say, however, that Serbia was responsible for failing to prevent the slaughter.

The Srebrenica massacre was the worst mass killing in Europe since World War II and the bloodiest episode in the Bosnian war, which claimed 100,000 lives.