State Prosecutor Vesna Medenica told Montenegrin Television on Friday that Montenegro could not be the sued party in the dispute before the International Court of Justice in The Hague because the legal successor to the former Yugoslavia was Serbia.
Bosnia said in a letter to the ICJ that Serbia and Montenegro were responsible for aggression and genocide, which Montenegro views as an attempt to make it the defendant without its consent, said Medenica.
"Montenegro's position is that the issue of international responsibility cannot be settled without its consent for a number of reasons. After the referendum, Montenegro has become an independent state with an international legal personality," she said.
She recalled that succession to the former State Union of Serbia and Montenegro was regulated with a constitutional charter which said that Serbia inherited all international commitments and that therefore, Montenegro could not be a defendant in the case in question.
In 1993, Bosnia and Herzegovina filed a suit with the ICJ against the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), which comprised Serbia and Montenegro, claiming damages for aggression and genocide committed in Bosnia during the 1992-95 war. The FRY filed a counterclaim, accusing Bosnian authorities of genocide against Serbs in Bosnia.
Montenegro has recently filed an official request with the ICJ to be exempted from the Bosnian claim.