Obradovic: Croatia presented defensive arguments

THE HAGUE - The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague started on Thursday the second round of oral argument in a dispute between Serbia and Croatia where both parties are suing each other for commission of genocide during the 1991-95 war in Croatia.

“During today’s session, the Croatian side begun to present its arguments in the second round of oral argument in this dispute. What we could hear were rather defensive positions taken with respect to a number of objections which the Serbian party set out in its statement of claim,” Sasa Obradovic, head of the Serbian legal team, told Tanjug.

“The time they devoted to some of our objections, the fact that they treat them very seriously, shows that the Croatian case does not stand very well,” he said.

The Serbian party will continue to present its oral argument on next Thursday and Friday, both in relation to Croatia’s claim and its observations on Serbia’s counter-claim.

During the presentation of Serbia’s counter-claim in last week's public hearings at the ICJ, representatives of the Serbian legal team detailed mass crimes and genocide against Serbs committed by Croatia’s official armed forces, led by the state leadership under then president Franjo Tudjman.

The Serbian party presented a range of evidence and testimonies showing that Operation Storm has all the elements of the crime of genocide, and that Croatia has violated its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The public hearings, which opened with Croatia starting to present its oral argument on March 3, will close on April 1.
This is the final stage in the dispute before the ICJ that was instituted in 1999...

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