Bosnia

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I came to the floor of the Senate earlier this year warning my colleagues that the leader of one of the subdivisions within the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Dodik, was ignoring rulings by the national-level Bosnia court. He was threatening to have half the country secede, which, of course, drags up memories we should never forget about the war and the genocide in those countries in the 1990s in which many Bosnian Iowans lost family.

Well, I am glad that he has since complied with the court ruling by stepping down from his position as leader of the RS entity and walked back some of his destabilizing actions. In return, the United States has dropped sanctions against Mr. Dodik and his family.

I am all for rewarding this good behavior, but there are very good reasons to believe that Mr. Dodik has not seen the error of his ways. Mr. Dodik, since, falsely alleged that he was still the rightful President of RS, questioned whether Bosnia and Herzegovina should continue to exist--and can you believe this?--he was photographed embracing Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Belarus.

Mr. Dodik should be on notice then that the United States is watching to see that he stays on the straight and narrow that he wants us to believe that he is on.

I can assure you that this Senator will be on the lookout for any destabilizing actions that threaten the peace in Bosnia. And I will work with the Trump administration to make sure that all actors in the region respect the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the violence and genocide that took place in 1995.

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