Replying in writing from New York to a query from Hina, Damaska said he found out about the replacement from the newspapers, without being previously notified about the cancellation of a contract he had signed with the previous Croatian Justice Ministry.
At the same time, he confirmed that he sent a note to the incumbent Justice Ministry on Monday declining further cooperation, but said he had still not received an official reply, learning about his replacement from the media.
Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic said on Thursday that the government had decided to replace Damaska as Croatia's representative in the genocide lawsuit with Vesna Crnic-Grotic, a law school professor from Rijeka, since he, "because of commitments at Yale University, can't be at the government's disposal."
In his reply to Hina, Damaska said other "sensitive reasons" had contributed to the cancellation of his engagement but would not state them while the suit is under way. He added that for him, the suit "is not in the realm of daily political games."
He also declined to assess the prospects of Croatia's lawsuit but said that in its countersuit Serbia had no chance of proving that Croatia had broken the UN's 1948 Genocide Convention with Operation Storm in 1995.
Asked if his replacement was the Croatian government's first step towards a withdrawal by Croatia and Serbia of the genocide suits they had filed against each other, Damaska said he did not think so.
Croatia launched proceedings against Serbia before the ICJ on 2 July 1999 for violations of the UN's Genocide Convention committed during the 1991-95 war in Croatia, accusing it of ethnic cleansing which resulted in the displacement, killing, torture and unlawful detention of many Croatian citizens as well as widespread property destruction.
Croatia asks in the lawsuit that the ICJ find that Serbia violated its legal obligations under the Convention and that it has the obligation to pay war reparations to Croatia, its citizens, their property, the economy and the environment in an amount to be determined by The Hague-based court.