Serbia, Bosnia Leaders Clash Over 'Genocide Lawsuit'

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic reacted angrily on Tuesday to a suggestion by the Bosniak member of the Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, who said that Sarajevo is considering filing a new lawsuit against Belgrade for aggression and genocide during the 1990s war on the basis of information from last week's verdict convicting Radovan Karadzic.

Vucic accused Izetbegovic of looking for an excuse to start a dispute between the two countries.

"There is somebody who doesn't want reconciliation in the region, and instead? is looking for any sufficient reason to start a spiral which is primarily politically violent, and which might lead to who knows what kind of violence," Vucic told Serbian newspaper Politika.

He said that Serbia "wants peace and true reconciliation first of all", but complained that Belgrade "has no partner" in the process.

"Somebody sees all this as an opportunity to carry out revenge against the Serbs, instead of achieving reconciliation," Vucic said.

Izetbegovic told Bosnian media on Monday that local experts were analysing last Thursday's verdict convicting wartime Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison by the UN court in The Hague for genocide and crimes against humanity.

Izetbegovic said that if the verdict against Karadzic contains "new elements" incriminating Serbia, sarajevo will prepare a new lawsuit against Belgrade.

"We will not sweep the suffering of these people and this country under the carpet and we will start to revise the process, but we need new proof," he said.

Bosnia and Herzegovina filed a lawsuit against Serbia at the International Court of Justice in 2006 accusing Belgrade of genocide against Bosniaks...