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Reuters
World Court Says Cannot Rule in NATO Bombing Case
December 15, 2004
The World Court on Wednesday ruled out hearing a case by Serbia and Montenegro challenging the legality of NATO's 1999 air strikes after a Serb crackdown in Kosovo, saying it did not have jurisdiction.
NATO members, including Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Canada, argued at hearings in April that the United Nations' highest court could not consider Serbia and Montenegro's claim. The eight NATO states concerned said at the time their action was justified by what they said was Belgrade's ethnic cleansing of Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanian population. The former Yugoslavia argued the air strikes violated international law.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the former Yugoslavia was not an official member of the United Nations when it initiated the case in April 1999 and as a result was also not a party to the ICJ's statute. "The court unanimously finds that it has no jurisdiction to entertain the claim made in the application filed by Serbia and Montenegro on the 29th of April, 1999," Judge Shi Jiuyong said.
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, made up of Serbia and Montenegro, was recognised as a U.N. member in 2000, ending an ambiguous legal status sparked by the break-up of the Former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. The Former Socialist Federation was made up of six republics until Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia declared independence after the end of the Cold War. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia changed its name to Serbia and Montenegro in 2003.
NATO's 11-week bombing campaign forced a Serb pullout from Kosovo, ending what the alliance regarded as a crackdown by Serb forces against ethnic Albanians in the breakaway province during former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's rule. Human Rights Watch says that NATO bombs killed some 500 Yugoslav civilians between March and June, 1999. Yugoslav authorities said at the time that 2,500 Yugoslavs were killed.
The ICJ, also known as the World Court, in 1999 rejected a request by the former Yugoslavia for an interim ruling ordering the bombing to stop and threw out cases against the United States and Spain on a technicality.
Milosevic, on trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s. He does not recognise the court and has rejected the charges as false. Judges entered not guilty pleas on his behalf.
More Information on International Justice
More Information on the International Court of Justice
More Information on Kosovo
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