The International Court of Justice in The Hague Thursday rejected Bosnia's appeal to review a 2007 genocide case that cleared Serbia.
According to Bosnia Herzegovina's presidency, the request for the revision of the genocide case was rejected on the grounds that "the decision to reopen the case is not a joint decision of the council members".
"On the grounds that Bosnia and Herzegovina's decision to reopen the genocide case against Serbia was not a decision taken by the competent authorities of the state, nothing can be done about the application made for the revision of the decision on February 26th, 2007," says the statement from the office of presidency.
At a press conference Bosniak Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bakir Izetbegovic, stressed that the gates of the International Court of Justice were closed to people seeking justice.
"The decision taken by the court is not a correct decision because it is necessary to base this decision on documents and evidence. The International Court of Justice has shown a political attitude, not a legal one..."Hatidza Mehmedovic, president of the Mothers of Srebrenica Association, said the international community was complicit in the fighting in Bosnia and the genocide in Srebrenica.
"We hoped that there would be justice, but there is no justice," said Mehmedovic.
- Right decision for Serbs
Mladen Ivanic, the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia Herzegovina, said at a news conference that he was expecting for the rejection.
"I have been saying for days, weeks, trying to warn... they did not want to hear," he said.
Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic noted that the decision was the right one.
The Bosniak member of Bosnia Herzegovina's tripartite presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, announced two weeks ago that an appeal would be lodged against the International Court of Justice's 2007 verdict that cleared Serbia of complicity in genocide during the 1992-95 Bosnian War.
The lawsuit has its origins in the July 1995 Srebrenica genocide that occurred when Bosnian Serb forces killed 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys after overrunning a UN-protected safe area during the Bosnian War.
In February 2007, the International Court of Justice in The Hague rejected the genocide case taken by Bosnia against the state of Serbia.
Although it described Srebrenica as a case of genocide, it did not find Serbia guilty of being directly responsible for the killings. The statute of limitation to reopen the case will expire at the end of February.
