DHAKA: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague has ruled that Serbia did not commit genocide in Croatia during the Balkan Wars.

It is still issuing its ruling on a counter claim of genocide from the Serbian side.

The Croatian government had alleged that Serbia committed genocide in the town of Vukovar and elsewhere in 1991.

Serbia later filed a counter claim over the expulsion of more than 200,000 Serbs from Croatia.

About 20,000 people died during the 1991-1995 war, when Croatia broke away from Yugoslavia.

The Croatian town of Vukovar was devastated when it was occupied by Serbs for three months in 1991. Tens of thousands of ethnic Croats were displaced, and about 260 Croat men were detained and killed.

Four years later, the Croatian military’s Operation Storm bombarded the majority ethnic-Serb Krajina area, forcing about 200,000 people from their homes.

Speaking in court on Tuesday, Judge Peter Tomka ruled that Serbia did not commit genocide in the war, and said Croatian case was ‘dismissed in its entirety’.

The evidence provide by the Croatian side was not sufficient to prove that the acts committed by Serbian forces had the ‘specific intent required for acts of genocide’, he said, reports the BBC.

BDST: 1716 HRS, FEB 03, 2015