ICJ TO ANNOUNCE ITS RULING REGARDING YUGOSLAVIA'S REQUEST MONDAY

ZAGREB, Feb 2 (Hina) - The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague will on Monday announce its ruling regarding a request by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) that the court re-consider its jurisdiction over a lawsuit Bosnia-Herzegovina filed against the FRY for the violation of the Convention on Genocide. #L# In April 2001 the FRY requested that the ICJ re-consider its decision of July 11, 1996 which declared the court competent to rule in the case of Bosnia's genocide lawsuit against the FRY. Yugoslavia based its request on Article 61 of the ICJ Statute, which envisages that such requests can be submitted if a new decisive fact is discovered. Yugoslavia claims that its admission to the UN on November 1, 2000 as a new member proved that it had not continued the legal and political subjectivity of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). Admission to the UN as a new member constitutes "the new fact" which was "obviously not known either to the Court or the FRY at the time the decision was made in 1996". Since membership in the UN, combined with the status of a party to the ICJ Statute and the Convention on Genocide, is the only basis for the ICJ's jurisdiction over the FRY, the lack of that precondition is decisive, it is noted in Yugoslavia's request. The FRY also noted that there were no alternative bases for the ICJ's jurisdiction because in the instruments of admission to the Convention on Genocide on March 8, 2001 it had been reserved towards Article IX of the Convention. Admission to the Convention therefore cannot have a retroactive effect because the FRY never accepted Article IX, it is stated. Under Article IX, the ICJ makes rulings in disputes between parties to the Convention related to the interpretation, application or implementation of the Convention, including those concerning the responsibility of a state for genocide, at a party's request. Bosnia-Herzegovina in March 1993 submitted a request to the ICJ demanding that it be allowed to sue the FRY for the violation of the Convention on Genocide committed through destruction and using Article IX to support the court's jurisdiction over the case. In preliminary proceedings in June 1995 the FRY tried to challenge the jurisdiction of the ICJ, which the court dismissed in July 1996 declaring itself authorised on the basis of Article IX. Hearings about the FRY's request were held from 4-7 November 2002 before a 15-member panel of judges. Each of the sides had two days to present its arguments, reiterating in the closing statements requests from their written applications - Yugoslavia demanded that its revision request be allowed, while Bosnia demanded that it be dismissed. After the break-up of the former SFRY, the authorities in Belgrade were for years trying to prove that the rump Yugoslavia, reduced to Serbia and Montenegro, continued the international subjectivity of the former state, while today they insist on its discontinuity in order to protect themselves from accusations involving the gravest crime in international law - genocide, for which the country has been sued by Bosnia and Croatia. Croatia sued the FRY for genocide in July 1999. Comparing the two lawsuits, Yugoslavia's legal representative in disputes before the ICJ, Tibor Varadi, said the Yugoslav legal team had "little manoeuvring space" in the dispute with Bosnia, while the dispute with Croatia was yet to see first serious moves. Varadi stated that in case Yugoslavia was ordered to pay damages, it would drastically restrict its prospects of economic recovery and development in the foreseeable time. "We probably would not be able to pay damages, but the burden of it would considerably affect our credit rating and position on the international market," Varadi added. The ICJ is the UN's highest judicial body, authorised to settle disputes between UN member-countries. (hina) rml