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How did the Yugoslavia tribunal explain genocide against a smaller selected part of a group?

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Railway tracks lead to the brick entrance building and guard tower of Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp near Oswiecim, Poland. — Genocide Freight train tracks leading to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Nazi Germany's largest concentration camp, near Oświęcim, Poland.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) clarified that genocidal intent—the specific intent to destroy a group in whole or in part—can be manifested through the persecution of smaller, selected groups of people.1

The tribunal explained that while genocidal intent may involve the mass extermination of a large number of group members, it can also consist of the targeted destruction of a more limited number of individuals. This occurs when these specific persons are selected because their disappearance would have a significant impact on the survival of the group as a whole. In such instances, the tribunal characterized this as an intention to destroy the group "selectively".1

This interpretation aligns with the broader legal framework of the Genocide Convention, which prohibits acts committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group "in whole or in part".2