Court Still Weighing Genocide Case From Milosevic Era

THE HAGUE — Among the unfinished business left by the death of Slobodan Milosevic is the central question of whether he was guilty, as charged, of genocide in Bosnia.

But while his death brought a sudden end to his trial at the United Nations war crimes tribunal, the genocide issue may well be decided by another United Nations court based in The Hague: the International Court of Justice.

That court, also known as the World Court, has recently finished nine weeks of hearings on a case filed 13 years ago, in the middle of the Bosnian war. With Muslim villages under attack and civilians driven into detention camps, Bosnia's lawyers turned to the court, accusing Yugoslavia of violations "on all counts" of the United Nations Convention on Genocide.

The case was held back by a slow-paced institution and by repeated legal moves by Belgrade to block the lawsuit. In the meantime, Yugoslavia became Serbia and Montenegro in 2003, and in May simply Serbia.

Now, the hearings over, judges from 16 countries must give their interpretation of events from the 1992-1995 war. That is expected within the year.