The Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nebojsa Radmanovic, was the first state official to comment on the court ruling, saying that it would probably disappoint many, particularly those who had caused tensions in expectation of the ICJ's decision.
"The ICJ's judgement should be respected," Radmanovic said, calling for further efforts to strengthen cooperation within the country and in the region.
Radmanovic, a Serb, said he was one of those who thought that Bosnia and Herzegovina's genocide lawsuit against Serbia and Montenegro was illegal.
The Bosniak member of the Presidency, Haris Silajdzic, did not conceal his displeasure with the court ruling.
"I regret that Serbia and Montenegro were not found guilty of genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or even of complicity in genocide," Silajdzic said, adding that the two countries were found responsible for violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime Genocide.
"It's clear that the judgement is incomplete," Silajdzic said, stressing that Bosnia and Herzegovina should now make every effort to ensure "every form of compensation - political, moral and financial - for the damage done."
The Croat member of the Presidency, Zeljko Komsic, said that he was disappointed with the court judgement, but that it should be respected.
"Whether it is a lack of evidence or a misjudgement on the part of the court, it's irrelevant at the moment, but I wish to say privately that the worst act of genocide was committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992. That's clear to all of us who lived here," Komsic said.
The highest UN court said on Friday that the massacre by Bosnian Serb forces of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in July 1995 constituted genocide and that Serbia was responsible in that it had failed to prevent it and punish the perpetrators. The court, however, found that "the acts of genocide at Srebrenica cannot be attributed to the respondent's (Serbia) state organs."
The court ruled with 13 votes against two that Serbia did not commit genocide, the ICJ President, Judge Rosalyn Higgins, said in the courtroom.