Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor has said that Croatia is ready for the process of proving its genocide lawsuit against Serbia before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and that Zagreb is also oriented only towards the future and the development of good-neighbourly relations.
"We have prepared evidence to prove that Croatia was exposed to aGreater Serbian aggression under the leadership of Slobodan Milosevic, and thatthis was a war which we did not want but we had to defend ourselves. We possessall the data and facts to show that it is historical truth," Croatian PMKosor said on Friday in response to reporters' questions about possibledevelopments after Serbia on Thursday decided to file a counterclaim againstCroatia before the Hague-based ICJ.
Despite that news from Serbia, Croatia will keep working on good-neighbourlyrelations and is oriented towards the future, Kosor said during her visit to aobstetrical and gynecological hospital in Zagreb on the New Year Day.
She went on to say that Croatia would continue offering assistance to itsneighbours on their European Union road.
Asked by reporters if that meant that Serbia's counter-suit would not affectthe bilateral relations, Kosor said that it would not spoil the bilateralrelations as far as Croatia was concerned.
"This is a part of the past (about which the suit is), and we share thecommon future and we would like to live as good neighbours," she added.
The Serbian government said on Thursday that the counterclaim was promptedby the genocide lawsuit which Croatia filed in July 1999 against the thenFederal Republic of Yugoslavia which consisted of Serbia and Montenegro at thetime. On 2 July 1999, Croatia brought the action before the ICJ against theFederal Republic of Yugoslavia for violating the 1948 Convention on thePrevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide committed in Croatia duringthe 1991-1995 war. On 18 November 2008 the ICJ decided that the case fellwithin its jurisdiction.
