THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- The International Court of Justice has ruled that both Serbia and Croatia are not guilty of committing genocide during the 1991-1995 Balkan Wars.
The U.N.-run court in The Hague, Netherlands, said that Croatia's case against Serbia was "dismissed in its entirety." Croatia claimed that Serbia committed genocide in the town of Vukovar and elsewhere during the Balkan Wars that killed about 20,000 people.
Judge Peter Tomka said the evidence provided by Croatia was not sufficient proof that the actions taken by Serbia had the "specific intent required for acts of genocide."
Croatia filed its initial case in 1999 and Serbia filed a countersuit in 2010.
The war began after Croatia and Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia and the Serbian-controlled Yugoslavian army retaliated.
Both sides previously said they will accept the verdicts. Serbia occupied the town of Vukovar for three months in 1991. The town was devastated and tens of thousands of ethnic Croatians were displaced and about 260 Croatian men were detained and killed.
In 1995, Croatia bombarded the area of Krajina, populated by mostly ethnic Serbians, displacing about 200,000 people.
The United Nations Genocide Convention in 1948 said that to be considered genocide there must be acts committed including intent to destroy in whole or part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, forcibly transferring children of the group to another and imposing measures intended to prevent births.
