Story highlights A U.N. court finds that Serbian forces did commit large-scale killings, other violent acts

But there's not enough evidence showing intent to commit genocide, the court rules

The same court dismisses Serbia's counterclaim that Croatia committed genocide

(CNN) Serbian forces committed egregious violent acts against ethnic Croatians in the early 1990s, but they don't equate to genocide, a U.N. court ruled Tuesday.

The 153-page ruling from the International Court of Justice means that modern-day Serbia will not have to pay restitution to Croatia, which in 1991 split from what was then Yugoslavia. The decision relates only to the two national governments' responsibility to one another, not the culpability of any individuals for targeting members of an ethnic group. Such individual cases are handled by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), another U.N. court.

"Croatia has not established that the only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the (Serbians') pattern of conduct ... was the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Croat group," the International Court of Justice (or ICJ) ruled. "... It follows ... Croatia has failed to substantiate its allegation that genocide was committed."

In addition to dismissing Croatia's case that its citizens had been victims of genocide, the ICJ also rebuffed Serbia's counterclaim that Croatian forces had committed genocide against its own citizens.

This all relates to what happened in the 1990s, in the bloody aftermath of Yugoslavia splintering into separate nations. Many of the most horrific allegations have been levied against those aligned with the Yugoslavia government -- the closest equivalent to what is now the Republic of Serbia -- for its actions in Kosovo and Bosnia.

Read More