AFTER BOSNIA RULING, SIMILAR DECISION LIKELY IN CROATIA'S CASE-OFFICIAL

NEW YORK/ZAGREB, Feb 4 (Hina) - Croatia's legal representative at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Ambassador Ivan Simonovic, on Monday evening hailed an ICJ ruling to declare itself competent for the Bosnia-Herzegovina's genocide suit against Yugoslavia, and thus rejected Belgrade's challenge to its jurisdiction. #L# "The decision in the Bosnian case makes it very possible for the court to pass a similar decision in Croatia's case," Simonovic said and added that the jurisdiction issue was not entirely the same in Croatia and Bosnia's cases. "The Bosnian case now continues, the main hearing is expected to be scheduled, but it would no longer tackle procedural issues, but the main problem," Simonovic said and added the hearing could be expected in the end of 2003. The ICJ on Monday dismissed Yugoslavia's request for the reconsideration of the court's decision dating 1996 by which it declared itself competent for the genocide suit Sarajevo lodged against Belgrade. Ivan Simonovic is Croatia's outgoing representative with the United Nations in New York who will take the office of deputy foreign minister. Yugoslavia also objected to the ICJ jurisdiction in Croatia's case, and according to Simonovic, the court said Croatia could respond to Yugoslavia's objection by the end of April. Asked to comment on public debates of top Croatian and Yugoslav state officials on the amount of war damages, as against the fact that ICJ reports include only one verdict and an order to pay war damages (in 1949 Albania was ordered to pay 844,000 British pounds to Great Britain for mines left in the sea which damaged British ships), Simonovic stressed that reparations can refer only to genocide damage. (hina) it