Bloggers: Genocide trials will have no winner

Bloggers: Genocide trials will have no winner

As the International Court of Justice begins hearing the Croatian and Serbian lawsuits, bloggers weigh in with their thoughts.

The judges at the International Court of Justice arrive for the start of the Croatia-Serbia genocide trial on March 10th. [AFP]

The International Court of Justice in The Hague began hearing arguments on Croatia vs Serbia on Monday (March 10th), but the outcome will not change opinions of what happened in the 1990s conflicts, experts and bloggers said.

Croatia filed genocide charges with The Hague court against Serbia in early 1999, demanding that Belgrade punish all the perpetrators of 1990s war crimes, return looted cultural property and pay for wartime damages.

In response, Serbia submitted a countersuit in 2010, maintaining that Croatia was guilty of genocide against Serbs during and after the war.

''The main objective of Croatia's lawsuit is that Serbia recognise that Milosevic's regime was the aggressor. On the other hand, the only goal of the Serbian counterclaim is that Croatia unconditionally withdraw its lawsuit,'' Davor Gjenero, a professor at Zagreb's Faculty of Political Science, told SETimes.

"Everyone in Croatia is clear that there will be no reparations," he added.

Since it was established after World War II, the International Court of Justice has only recognised one case of genocide, the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Both Zagreb and Belgrade have expressed confidence that they will win their cases, but citizens in both countries said the verdict will not affect their lives.

"He who went to sea in Croatia will go this year also. Those who have relatives in Serbia will...