Serbia to respond to Croatian genocide charges with countersuit at ICJ

20/11/2008

Serbia is planning to press war crimes charges against Croatia in retaliation for Zagreb's genocide suit at the International Court of Justice.

(FT - 20/11/08; AKI, Javno.hr, B92, Blic - 19/11/08; AP, AFP, Reuters, DPA, AKI, BBC, CNN, Beta, B92, UN News Centre, International Court of Justice - 18/11/08)

"Storm ... was a legitimate action by the Croatian army and police," Croatian President Stipe Mesic said. [AFP]

Serbia will lodge a countersuit against Croatia before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said late on Tuesday (November 18th), after The Hague-based court ruled that it has jurisdiction to hear Zagreb's genocide allegations against Serbia.

Belgrade is planning to sue Croatia for war crimes committed during Operation Storm in 1995, which caused an estimated 250,000 ethnic Serbs to flee their homes. About 130,000 of them reportedly have returned.

"Croatia has rejected our offer of reconciliation and efforts to leave the past behind," Jeremic told state broadcaster RTS, voicing regret that Zagreb had rejected an out-of-court settlement. "We will now turn to history to determine the truth so we can have a joint future in the European Union."

But Croatian President Stipe Mesic, whose country lodged its suit against Serbia with the ICJ back in 1999, said on Wednesday that the planned countersuit against his country would be groundless.

"Operation Storm cannot be compared with our suit against Serbia," Mesic told the Croatian Radio Television (HRT). "The Croatian Army did not commit genocide, the Croatian Army did not enter Serbia; it did not destroy villages in Serbia."

Croatia accused Serbia of having engaged throughout the 1991-1995 conflict between the two countries in "a form of genocide". The war claimed an estimated 20,000 lives.

Zagreb demands the punishment of all who committed genocide, the return of all stolen Croatian cultural artefacts and reparations by Serbia.

Seeking to stop the lawsuit, Serbia filed three preliminary objections.

But the 17-judge court rejected them all Tuesday, ruling that the ICJ "has jurisdiction, on the basis of Article IX of the Genocide Convention, to entertain the case on the merits". That ruling cannot be appealed; observers expect the ICJ may require several years to reach a verdict.

Jeremic indicated Serbia's countersuit will also touch on crimes committed by Croatia's pro-Nazi World War II regime.

Mesic stressed on Wednesday that Croatia has fulfilled its obligation to send all indicted war criminals to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Serbia has yet to hand over two war crimes fugitives sought by the ICTY -- former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic and former Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadzic. Belgrade says it is unaware of their whereabouts.

The dispute between Serbia and Croatia marks the nadir of their postwar relations, analysts said, stressing the ties between the two former Yugoslav republics are crucial to the stability of the entire region.