"We have done almost everything we could have in the past 15 years, we are not happy with the court's decision, but we accept it in a civilised manner," Milanovic told a news conference at the government headquarters after the ICJ announced its ruling.
Milanovic said the court did not find that genocide had been committed against the Croat population in the period from 1991 to 1995, but "it has established what we know definitely happened - grave war crimes and ethnic cleansing."
He said that the Serbian counter-suit "obviously had weaker grounds, which is why it ended up the way it did."
"More than 20 years have passed, Croatia today is a member of the EU, it has won a war and it has the possibility to move forward and build the present and the future in the company of the world's most developed countries," Milanovic said.
We wish Serbia all the best in that sense, but Croatia will and cannot give up its demands for establishing the truth about its missing persons or the restitution of its cultural property, he said.
"That is our debt to the Croatian people and state and a moral obligation for every Croatian government," said Milanovic.
(Hina) rml