Croatia on Friday rejected as unfounded Serbia"s plan to file charges of genocide against Zagreb at the United Nation"s International Court of Justice, local media reported, according to dpa. Croatia Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor told reporters in Zagreb that Croatia "can prove that in fact it was Serbian aggression on Croatia under the baton of Slobodan Milosevic" who ruled Serbia for more than a decade before dying in 2006 during his trial at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Kosor said Croatia was dragged "into a war it did not want but had to defend itself" and that Zagreb "has all the facts to prove that historical truth." Belgrade said Thursday it had prepared a lawsuit for atrocities Croatian forces allegedly committed against the Serbs in the 1991-95 war. The lawsuit is intended to counter Zagreb"s suit filed more than 10 years ago. Croatia demands compensation and accuses Serbia of ethnic cleansing and killing 20,000 Croats. Kosor told reporters in Zagreb that the lawsuits were part of the two countries pasts, and were not an indication of present or future relations. Stating the desire for Serbia and Croatia to live as neighbours, she said: "Good relations between Belgrade and Zagreb will not be endangered." Yugoslavia broke up in bloody wars during the 1990s. The war in Croatia broke out in 1991 after Croatia split from the Yugoslav federation. The ICJ delivered a verdict in a similar lawsuit filed by Bosnia against Serbia in February 2007 clearing Belgrade of genocide accusations but saying it had not done enough to stop Bosnian Serbs from carrying it out.
