Bosnians angry, resigned over ruling

SARAJEVO — Bosnians are expressing mixed reactions to the World Court's ruling this week that the country of Serbia did not commit genocide at Srebrenica.

Expressing a combination of disappointment, anger and hurt, they say that while they believe the court's decision unjust, it does offer a glimmer of hope.

From 1992 until the Dayton Peace Accords of 1995, Bosnia and other parts of the former Yugoslavia were rent by religious and ethnic strife. Sarajevo lay under siege for almost the entire war.

Now the capital of the mostly Muslem Bosnia, Sarajevo was pounded by ethnic Serb artillerymen. However, on Friday a resident said some ethnic Serbs living in Sarajevo also had joined the defenders.

One of the worst massacres in the war's "ethnic cleansing" happened in the town of Srebrenica, where "Bosnian Serb forces killed over 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men following the takeover of Srebrenica in July 1995," the World Court stated.

After international peacekeepers arrived to enforce a cease-fire, the fighting ended in this region. Bosnia filed a civil suit in the World Court in hopes of holding neighboring Serbia responsible for genocide at Srebrenica. It sought reparations as well as recognition of Serbia's guilt.

This week, the World Court, based at The Hague, ruled that Serbia had not committed genocide at Srebrenica, but it had failed to honor its obligations to prevent genocide. It made a distinction between the country of Serbia and ethnic Serb forces.

The ruling sparked a 5,000-person protest in front of the parliament building in Sarajevo on Monday.

Justice not served

Akim Tvrtkovic, who runs a parking lot in Sarajevo, choked up when asked about the war. One of Tvrtkovic's children died and another is in a wheelchair, he said through translator Adi Soklija.

"A lot of his family got killed, because in those areas it was very hard to stay alive. You had to run for your life," Soklija said.

Tvrtkovic "saw everything," Soklija added. "Those people come in, and he saw them and he knew, actually like everyone that was there, he knew that those people, they're under support of Serbia as a country."

Military units wore "Republika Srpska" uniforms, he said, but he is certain they got their arms from Serbia.