Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Thursday that Belgrade would "wait for a while" with its counterclaim against Croatia's genocide suit before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), adding that there was still time to consider the matter.
"My general approach is that it would have been good if Croatia had notfiled a lawsuit against Serbia and that Serbia need not respond with acountersuit, but that issues of civil rights and the rights of Croatian andSerbian citizens are dealt with in court proceedings that do not have deeppolitical implications for relations between the two nations," Tadic toldreporters after meeting with representatives of political parties and nationalassociations of ethnic Serbs from neighbouring countries.
Tadic said he was always in favour of practical and useful solutions thatwould not cause too much ethnic tension, but noted that such an approachrequired the consent of the other party.
"In recent days I have participated in talks with Croatianrepresentatives and institutions and I hope we can improve our relations. Wewill see what the outcome of these talks will be. Perhaps we can avoidsolutions like these," Tadic said.
The Belgrade television network TV B92 said on Thursday that Serbia's legalteam had finished work on a lawsuit against Croatia for committing genocide ofethnic Serbs during the 1991-1995 war, adding that the lawsuit would besubmitted to the ICJ in The Hague as soon as technical preparations werecompleted, possibly before the end of 2009.
The vice-president of Croatia's Independent Democratic Serb Party, MiloradPupovac, told B92 that the Croatian suit against Serbia and a possible Serbiancountersuit presented the greatest burden on Croatian-Serbian relations.
"It is clear to both sides that the court will not say that genocidewas committed, so why waste money and prevent relations from improving, whyprevent people from facing up to what really happened," Pupovac said.
On 2 July 1999, Croatia brought an action before the ICJ against what wasthen the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) for violatingthe 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocidecommitted in Croatia during the 1991-1995 war.
The ICJ decided on 18 November 2008 that the case fell within itsjurisdiction, and two days later the Serbian government decided to respond tothe Croatian lawsuit with a countersuit.
