text: Image copyright Reuters Image caption Some 20,000 people died during Croatia's war of independence 
   
   The International Court of Justice has rejected claims of genocide by Serbia and Croatia against each other during the Croatian war of secession from Yugoslavia. 
   
   The Croatian government had alleged that Serbia committed genocide in the town of Vukovar and elsewhere in 1991. 
   
   Serbia later filed a counter-claim over the expulsion of more than 200,000 Serbs from Croatia. 
   
   About 20,000 people died during the 1991-1995 war, mostly Croatians. 
   
   The Croatian town of Vukovar was devastated when it was occupied by Serbs for three months in 1991. Tens of thousands of ethnic Croats were displaced, and about 260 Croat men were detained and killed. 
   
   Four years later, the Croatian military's Operation Storm bombarded the majority ethnic-Serb Krajina area, forcing about 200,000 people from their homes. 
   
   Speaking in court on Tuesday, Judge Peter Tomka dismissed both the Croatian claim and the Serbian counter-claim. 
   
   Forces on both sides had carried out violent acts during the war, Judge Tomka said. However, neither side had provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate the "specific intent required for acts of genocide". 
   
   The court's ruling was posted online. 
   
   Analysis: Guy Delauney, BBC Belgrade 
   
   The International Court of Justice has delivered the result that most people here were expecting, with both genocide suits dismissed in their entirety. The only mystery is why the cases ever progressed this far. 
   
   It is hard to see what either side was hoping to achieve - other than to have unflattering details from the conflict of the 1990s highlighted once more. 
   
   Both Croatia and Serbia may have been cleared of genocide, but the ICJ said that both sides had deliberately forced minority ethnic groups out of areas they controlled. 
   
   So there is little cause for celebration in Belgrade or Zagreb. But at least a toxic saga which has been rumbling for 16 years has finally drawn to a close. 
   
   Serbian Justice Minister Nikola Selkovic said the ruling would "start a new and blank page in our relationship with Croatia" and Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said he hoped it would lead to "a period of lasting peace and prosperity" in the region. 
   
   Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said: "We are not satisfied with the court's ruling but we accept it in a civilised manner." 
   
   Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Judge Peter Tomka delivers his verdict 
   
   Croatia filed its initial case with the International Court of Justice - the top UN court - in 1999, accusing Serbs, led by President Slobodan Milosevic, of targeting ethnic Croats during the conflict. 
   
   It wanted Serbia to pay compensation for damages "to persons and properties as well as to the Croatian economy and environment". 
   
   In 2010, Serbia responded to Croatia's case with a countersuit, saying that ethnics Serbs were expelled when Croatia launched its 1995 operation to retake territory captured by Serbs. 
   
   Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Anna Holligan explains the background to the cases heard at the ICJ 
   
   "What is generally called ethnic cleansing does not constitute genocide," Judge Tomka said in his ruling against Serbia's claim. 
   
   "Acts of ethnic cleansing may be part of a genocidal plan but only if there is an intention to physically destroy the target group." 
   
   The BBC's Anna Holligan in The Hague says although genocide is the most serious of international crimes, it is also the hardest to prove. 
   
   'End of a process' 
   
   Relations between the two countries have improved in recent years but in 2012 Serbia was outraged when Operation Storm commander Ante Gotovina was cleared on appeal by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. 
   
   Image copyright EPA Image caption The verdict delivered by Judge Peter Tomka (centre) is final 
   
   Image copyright AFP Image caption Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Serbs were forced from their homes by the Croatian military's Operation Storm 
   
   Last week, ahead of the verdict, Vukovar resident Kata Lozancic told Reuters news agency she believed genocide had taken place in her town. 
   
   "Everything from cultural and natural sites, to people, everything was destroyed," she said. 
   
   A refugee in Serbia, identified only as Dragica, expressed unhappiness at the Croatian government's claims. "They expelled us Serbs, and now they [claim they] are not criminals, and we are," she told Reuters. 
   
   UN 1948 Genocide Convention 
   
   Act committed with intent to destroy in whole or part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group 
   
   Killing members of the group 
   
   Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group 
   
   Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring physical destruction 
   
   Imposing measures intended to prevent births 
   
   Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group 
   
   Yugoslavia became a Socialist state after World War Two. It consisted of six republics: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. 
   
   The federation began falling apart in the early 1990s. Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia declared independence, sparking conflicts with the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army. All four countries were eventually recognised as independent by the UN. 
   
   In 2006, Montenegro also emerged as a sovereign state after a referendum for independence, ending the former Union of Serbia and Montenegro. ||||| The Peace Palace, which houses The International Court of Justice, is seen in The Hague July 22, 2010. EUTERS/Jerry Lampen 
   
   THE HAGUE The United Nations' highest court will rule on Tuesday on genocide cases filed by Serbia and Croatia over atrocities allegedly committed during the violent breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. 
   
   The countries filed complaints against each other at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which could award financial compensation if it finds either side violated the 1948 Genocide Convention. 
   
   The cases, filed 16 years ago, are part of the long legal fall-out from the break-up of Yugoslavia into seven states in wars that lasted eight years and left more than 100,000 dead in Europe's worst conflagration since World War Two. 
   
   The ruling, which is due to start at 0900 GMT (4:00 a.m. ET), could stoke political tensions in both countries. 
   
   "What's really at stake is both states trying to justify their wars," said Eric Gordy, a professor at London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies. 
   
   "The strongest arguments they have to say they are justifying their wars is that they were defending their citizens against genocide," he added. 
   
   The U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which is also in The Hague, has long since ruled that genocide was committed in Bosnia, where more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed when the U.N. 'safe haven' of Srebrenica fell to Bosnian Serb forces in 1995. 
   
   Despite widespread atrocities against all sides, no court has ruled that ethnic Croats or Serbs were victims of genocide. Recent acquittals of suspects at the Yugoslav tribunal stoked anger in the two countries. 
   
   Many experts believe Tuesday's ruling is unlikely to find Croatia or Serbia liable for genocide if no individuals from either country have been convicted of the crime. 
   
   Croatia alleges that Serbia's destruction of towns and expulsion of ethnic Croats in Slavonia amounted to genocide. In turn, Serbia accuses Croatia of genocide over the expulsion of Serbs from Krajina. 
   
   In an earlier ruling from 2007 in a case brought by Bosnia, the same court found that Serbia was not responsible for genocide, but that it had breached the genocide convention by failing to prevent the massacre in Srebrenica. 
   
   (Editing by Anthony Deutsch and Andrew Heavens)
target: – Neither Serbia nor Croatia committed genocide in the wake of Yugoslavia's collapse, the International Court of Justice says in a verdict this morning from the Hague, per Reuters. In a case filed in 1999, Croatia had claimed Serbia committed genocide, including during a three-month occupation in Vukovar, during the Balkan Wars from 1991 to 1995. Serbia countered in 2010, alleging that Croatia expelled 200,000 Serbs, the BBC reports. Judge Peter Tomka said both countries were guilty of many crimes, but ruled the intent to commit genocide was not proven in the Serbian case, while the charge against Croatia was "dismissed in its entirety." Tens of thousands of ethnic Croats were displaced when the Croatian town of Vukovar was occupied by Serbs in 1991. Some 260 men were detained and killed. The Croatian military then bombarded ethnic Serbs in Krajina in 1995, displacing 200,000, the BBC notes. The decision "will put an end to both sides' fight to prove who the worst criminal is," Serbia's foreign minister said ahead of the decision. Both sides said they would accept the verdict. If either side had been found guilty of genocide, financial compensation may have been awarded, Reuters reports. (Serbia and Croatia recently teamed up to solve a massacre during the conflict.)