UPDATE: Serbia to Counter-sue Croatia for War Crimes

by Ese Omofoma
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BELGRADE, Serbia - Serbia will counter-sue Croatia for war crimes, after the International Court of Justice said it will try a genocide case against Serbia brought by Croatia.

"Serbia will sue Croatia... and give it an opportunity to respond to (our) charges of war crimes and ethnic cleansing committed against the Serb minority during the 1991-1995 war in Croatia," Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic told Serbian state television today.

Croatia argues that Serbia committed genocide during the 1991-95 war of independence in which thousands of people died.

The dispute has brought relations between the two former Yugoslav republics to their lowest point since the wars of the 1990s. Serbia-Croatia ties are crucial for the stability of the Balkans, which is still healing from the war.

The conflict erupted when Croatia declared independence from the former Yugoslavia triggering a rebellion by minority Serbs who were backed by Serbia.

About 10,000 people are believed to have been killed in the Croatian war. The conflict ended after Zagreb re-took the Serb-held territories in 1995.

Zagreb wants the World Court to order Belgrade to pay compensation for the war. Croatia also asked the court to order Serbia to help trace people missing from the war and return cultural items plundered during the fighting.

Serbia will now seek to prove that Croatia committed war crimes when it expelled its Serb population.

The Serbian suit also will touch on the atrocities by Croatia's Nazi puppet state against Serbs during World War II, Jeremic added.

"Croatia has rejected our offer of reconciliation and efforts to leave the past behind," he said. "We will now turn to history to determine the truth so we can have a joint future in the European Union."

This is the second time that Serbia will face allegations of genocide before the World Court. In February 2007, the U.N. judges exonerated Serbia of direct responsibility for genocide in Bosnia in the early 1990s, but ruled that it failed to prevent the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica.

For more information, please see:

Adnkronos - Serbia to sue Croatia after World Court ruling - 19 November 2008

Euronews - Serbia pledges to bring war crime case - 19 November 2008

Heraldsun - Serbia to counter-sue over war crimes - 19 November 2008

IHT - Serbia to sue Croatia over war crimes - 19 November 2008