[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 119 (Thursday, July 10, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S4301]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Srebrenica Genocide

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, July 11 is recognized by the United 
Nations General Assembly as the International Day of Reflection and 
Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica.
  This town in Bosnia and Herzegovina was the scene of the worst 
genocide on European soil since the Holocaust. Bosnian Serb separatists 
murdered 8,000 of their fellow Bosnians at that time--these fellow 
Bosnians had been their coworkers, their neighbors, even friends--
because of their Muslim heritage, practicing that faith or not 
practicing.
  Many Bosnian families who survived the genocide but who lost their 
family members became refugees and found a home in my State of Iowa. 
Bosnian Iowans have enriched Iowan communities with their strong work 
ethic, family values, and unique culture.
  Today, there are renewed calls for ethnic separatism in Bosnia. That 
dredges up painful memories for those who lived through the genocide of 
the 1990s.
  As we commemorate the loss, which so many Bosnian families 
experienced, we ought to be alert to the renewed efforts to finalize 
the ethnic cleansing project that began in the 1990s.
  The Dayton Accords are rightly celebrated for ending that killing of 
8,000, but they essentially froze the frontlines and enshrined ethnic 
divisions by creating two entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina. These 
two entities are named Republika Srpska and the Federation.
  Prior to the war and the ethnic cleansing, Bosnians of Orthodox, 
Muslim, and Catholic heritage were very intermixed; although, many 
Bosnians were not particularly practicing their respective religions.
  The territory that is now the Republika Srpska used to have a large 
percentage of Bosnians of Muslim heritage, but most are now gone. 
However, I have talked to Bosnians in Iowa of Muslim heritage who still 
have family living in the old country.
  Separatists in Bosnia and their advocates here falsely imply this 
area was always populated overwhelmingly by Orthodox Bosnian Serbs so 
they ought to have their own state. They also spin narratives that this 
is some great clash of faiths or civilizations.
  Bosnians share a common European culture. However, it seems like 
ethnic identity--not whether or how a Bosnian practices a faith--has 
been the focus of conflict.
  There are no easy answers for Bosnia's future, but I am convinced 
that state-building based on ethnic cleansing is not the right way to 
go, and we should have learned that from the genocide of 1995.