Serbia faces genocide charges at the Hague

Stéphanie Maupas, the daily's reporter at the Hague, finds that "what is at stake in this case, first launched 13 years ago, is more than a simple acknowledgement from the court that the Serb state committed genocide in Bosnia. Sarajevo is asking for compensation and, beyond that, is hoping to derive political benefits. The 1995 Dayton Peace Accords froze the country into two entities, the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Bosnian Serb Republic, that emerged from ethnic cleansing. If it is favourably disposed towards Sarajevo, the decision could provide additional arguments for the creation a truly unified state, something to which the Serb Republic particularly objects. It would, in fact, become difficult for the international community to continue defending a divided state one of whose components is a product of genocide."

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