According to the press in Sarajevo on Saturday, the scheduled trial will not be obstructed by attempts of Serb officials in Bosnia to challenge the legitimacy of the lawsuit.
Last month, Borislav Paravac, the Serb member in Bosnia's three-man presidency, initiated a procedure before the Bosnian Constitutional Court asking it to consider the grounds and legitimacy of the lawsuit and insisting that the procedure before the ICJ be halted.
Bosnian Foreign Minister Mladen Ivanic, who is also a Bosnian Serb representative, has tried to refer Paravac's request to the ICJ. According to the Oslobodjenje daily, the Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) member of the presidency, Sulejman Tihic, has sent instructions to Bosnia's Ambassador to the Netherlands, Fuad Sabeta, telling him not to communicate with the Court given that Sakib Softic is the only authorised representative of Bosnia before that international judicial institution.
"The motion for the postponement of the main hearing may be proposed only by Bosnia-Herzegovina's Presidency, and not by some of its members if they act of their own," Tihic was quoted by the daily as writing in his letter to Sabeta.
After the the Ambassador Sabeta informed the Foreign Minister Ivanic that he was not going to file his request with the ICJ.
According to the timetable of the trial, the main hearing will start with an opening statement which Softic will make presenting Bosnia's position and evidence during seven days.
After that Serbia-Montenegro will be given seven days to present its defence.
On 17 March, three expert witnesses proposed by Bosnia will be questioned by the court.
The Dnevni Avaz daily reports that retired British General Richard Dannatt is expected to explain the role of the then Yugoslav People's Army in the attacks against Bosnia-Herzegovina and its support to Bosnian Serb hardliner Radovan Karadzic and his forces. The second witness, Andras J. Riedlmayer, who is in charge of the Documentation Center of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, at the Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, will speak about the destruction of cultural and religious monuments and facilities.
The third witness proposed by Sarajevo is U.S. historian Robert Donia who should explain the genesis of the 1991-1995 war in Bosnia.
The defending party gave a lengthy list of its witnesses, including a former president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Zoran Lilic, retired JNA General Aleksandar Dimitrijevic, a Serbian reporter, Lazar Lalic, and among others also the current human rights ombudsman in Bosnia, Vitomir Popovic.
A final verdict is expected to be passed until the end of this year.