The International Court of Justice in The Hague has begun to consider an unprecedented lawsuit. Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) accuses Serbia and Montenegro (S&M), as the successor to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, of committing genocide against Bosnian Muslims during the civil war in the early 1990s. The lawsuit was filed back in 1993. The parties are given ten days to justify their positions. The process is expected to last until the end of this year. If Sarajevo wins the case, then Belgrade will have to pay the injured party about one and a half billion dollars. Belgrade regarded the act of the BiH authorities as “regrettable” and emphasized that this “clearly does not contribute to the improvement of relations between the two countries.” Observers note that for the first time since the existence of this highest UN court, charges “are brought against the entire state community, and not against individuals or regimes.” Let us recall that in 2004 the International Court of Justice rejected Belgrade's claim against NATO member countries, filed in April 1999 at the height of the military campaign against Yugoslavia. The claim was rejected under the pretext that the matter was not within the competence of the UN court, since the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was not formally a member of the UN at that time.
