Serbian TV bombing case thrown out

Sixteen died in NATO's bombing of the Serb TV headquarters

STRASBOURG, France -- The European Court of Human Rights has refused to accept a complaint against NATO nations brought by relatives of Yugoslavs who died in the 1999 allied bombing of Serbian TV in Belgrade.

Judges at the court in Strasbourg, France, unanimously declared the case inadmissible because the action occurred outside its jurisdiction.

Yugoslavia is not part of the 43-member Council of Europe.

The complaint was brought by six Yugoslavs. Five of them had family members who were among 16 people killed when NATO planes bombed television headquarters in Belgrade during the Kosovo conflict. The sixth was himself injured in the attack.

In a statement, the court said Yugoslavia "clearly did not fall within this legal space."

It added that the European Convention on Human Rights "was not designed to be applied throughout the world, even in respect of the conduct of contracting states."

Yugoslavia hopes to join the Council of Europe next year, but officials at the court said the complaint could not be heard again since the convention could not be invoked retrospectively. "Sadly, there can be no appeal," Vojin Dimitrijevic, a lawyer for the Serb families, told the Associated Press.

"I think the court was afraid that a positive ruling could trigger negative consequences, such as similar complaints triggered by allied military actions like in Afghanistan."

The complaint was lodged by the Yugoslavs in October 1999 against the 17 European NATO member nations, all members of the Council of Europe and signatories to the Convention on Human Rights.

The Yugoslavs' lawyers said the bombing of the TV station violated articles of the convention guaranteeing right to life, freedom of expression and right of an effective remedy for complaints.

NATO planes bombed the headquarters of Radio-Television Serbia early on April 23, 1999, one month into NATO's 78-day air campaign against Yugoslavia taken to end then-President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

"We welcome the decision of the court upholding arguments... that this application fell outside the court's jurisdiction," said deputy NATO spokesman Mark Laity.

"The respondent states will continue to abide by the rules of international humanitarian law in any conflict in which they are involved," he added.

Alliance officials said NATO would have vigorously contested the charges had the court decided to accept the case.

NATO's two non-European members, the U.S. and Canada, are not signatories to the human rights convention and therefore were not included in the case.