By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The United Nations' highest court is delivering a historic ruling Monday on whether Serbia is responsible for genocide through the killing, torture, rape and expulsion of Bosnian Muslims - the first time an entire nation is being held to judicial account for the ultimate crime.
Bosnia has said the government in Belgrade under then-President Slobodan Milosevic armed, financed and encouraged Bosnian Serbs to conduct an ethnic cleansing campaign that amounted to genocide in an attempt to create a "Greater Serbia" during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.
Serbia has said it was not responsible for the actions of Serb paramilitary groups, that the war was a conflict among ethnic groups, and that there was no intent to destroy Bosnia's Muslim population in whole or in part - a key element in genocide as defined in the 1948 Genocide Convention.
If it rules against Serbia, the court could order Belgrade to pay compensation, which would be determined in negotiations.