The International Court of Justice dismissed the genocide lawsuits filed by Croatia and Serbia against each other, judging that there was no genocide committed in either of the cases, said First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusić commenting the judgement, and added: “Although genocide as a deliberate intent to destroy a group in whole was not proven, that does not mean that there was no war or war crimes.”
“The court reviewed in detail and in some cases determined a whole series of such acts, but judged that those facts did not constitute a genocide corpus,” Pusić said, adding that the court had however once again confirmed that “all the war crimes happened in the territory of the Republic of Croatia, during aggression on Croatia.”
“The court has concluded that one of the main tasks regarding the war of the 1990s is to shed light on the fate of missing persons. That was a Croatian claim and a precondition for a possibly different court of events, but there had been no will to disclose information on missing persons. I hope that our colleagues in Serbia will comply with the court's instructions and get down to this task, which has a dramatic human aspect, and that is to shed light on the fate of missing persons,” Pusić said.
Croatia hopes that Serbia will start dealing with the issue of missing persons in accordance with the court's judgment, and both countries should look forward and ensure for their future generations that war does not happen again, Pusić said. “We all have a duty to rule out a possibility of anything similar happening in the future, for the sake of generations to come, and I hope this judgment too is a contribution to closing this chapter of history and moving forward towards better, more constructive and safer times,” Pusić said.
Asked whether the ruling could be interpreted as dividing the blame between Croatia and Serbia, Pusić said that such inference was not possible since “All the war crimes that were considered by the court occurred in Croatia. Someone attacked Croatia and started a war in Croatia, and those were remnants of the JNA and paramilitary forces from Serbia.”
As for Serbia’s accession talks, Pusić reiterated that Croatia’s position was well known, and that is that the same criteria that had existed and that Croatia had met had to be met by Serbia as well. “This is neither a promise nor a threat, this is simply a case of equal criteria for all. Without meeting them, there can be no progress,” Pusić concluded.