Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Tuesday that Serbia had "unfortunately" been forced to file a genocide countersuit against Croatia at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, but stressed that the two countries still had the time to withdraw their suits.
Tadic was quoted by Belgrade media as saying at an annual conference ofSerbian ambassadors that he was "deeply convinced" that there wasenough political and legal room for Croatia to withdraw its suit and Serbia itscountersuit and for the two countries to find a sensible solution to theirdispute.
In that way a confrontation of the two countries would be averted, he said,adding that it would have been better if justice for victims of the 1991-1995war and their families had been sought through usual court proceedings ratherthan by confronting the two states.
Serbia's legal representatives filed a lawsuit with the ICJ on Mondayalleging that Croatia had committed genocide of ethnic Serbs during the1991-1995 war in Croatia. It was a response to a genocide lawsuit Croatia hadfiled against Serbia in July 1999.
