"Intent was to destroy Croat communities"

"Intent was to destroy Croat communities"

Croatia claimed that the former Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) "knew of genocidal intent and activities of paramilitary groups, including the Tigers led by Željko Ražnatović, nicknamed Arkan."

"The paramilitary groups, which have destroyed entire Croatian villages, hamlets and towns, were acting with the knowledge of the JNA, which supplied them with weapons," said a member of the Croatian legal team, Philippe Sands.

"The military capacity of the JNA was such that it could control the paramilitaries, and it should have been aware of the danger that the genocide against Croats would happen," said Sands.

The Croatian News Agency (HINA) cited the British law professor as saying that "Serbia is guilty because it did not prevent the genocide and punish the perpetrators."

Speaking of the intent element of genocide, Sands said that "to qualify an act as this most serious crime it is sufficient to prove it was committed with intent to destroy in part, not necessarily in whole, a national, ethnic or religious community."

The giving of witness statements and examination of witnesses and witness-experts called by Croatia are planned after Croatia’s presentation of oral argument, but their testimonies are, according to a decision by the ICJ, to be disclosed only after the conclusion of the public hearings, on April 1.

On July 12, 1999, in the midst of NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia (then Serbia and Montenegro), Croatia dragged Serbia to the ICJ on charges of genocide, claiming it was responsible for death of about 10,000 people.

Serbia filed a counter-claim on January 4, 2010, accusing Croatia of genocide and ethnic cleansing of about 230,000 Serbs during Operation Storm in 1995, of killing about 7,000 Serbs, citing also about 2,000 missing and destruction, arson and looting of their homes during and after the Croatian army offensive.

Saša Obradović, Serbia's legal team chief, said yesterday it is a “historical irony” that the suit for genocide is brought against Serbia by Croatia, the country in which genocide was committed against the Serb people during World War II.

He stressed that genocide was repeated against Serbs in Croatia with Operation Storm in August 1995, the reason why only a third of the number of Serbs who lived in the country prior to 1991, and a quarter of the number relative to 1931, are in Croatia today.

Serbia’s counter-claim also points to the continuity of genocide, as the Croatian Nazis (Ustasha) killed several hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Roma in the Independent state of Croatia (NDH) during World War II.