Vucic: Serbia and Croatia should look to future

BELGRADE - Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday Serbia and Croatia would make an effort to let courts decide about issues from the past, while the authorities on both sides would focus on the present and future.

"Let us not poison our relations because of the fact that we see past events in different ways, Croatia in its own way and Serbia in a completely different one," Vucic told a news conference after a meeting with Croatia's Deputy Prime Minister Vesna Pusic.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will launch a debate in the dispute between Serbia and Croatia on mutual genocide suits on March 3.

As the sides in the dispute did not file tort claim against the other, the court will not tackle this matter and will discuss the allegations from the suit and counter-suit and establish whether Croatia and Serbia, as countries, conducted genocide in the territory of Croatia in the period from 1991 to 1995 covered by the suit and counter-suit.

Serbia has stated its opinion, said Vucic, pointing out that he believed the most important thing would be the actions made in the future, and adding that each side would understandibly strive to prove that the claims in one or the other lawsuit were true.

"As to whether it will be productive, I am afraid that no one is going to benefit too much from it," he noted, adding that he was certain the other topics he had covered with Pusic would bring improvements to the relations between the two countries and their people.

Serbia's legal team is fully prepared for the trial before the ICJ in The Hague, which will start on March 3.

Croatia filed its charges of genocide on July 2, 1999, demanding financial compensation in the amount...