Political Quotes

“I would like to join Senator Wicker from Mississippi in talking about what we saw and heard when we were in Bosnia. Unfortunately, the story that came out about that inspiring commemoration was about the attack by some of the Bosniaks who were attending on the Serbian Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, who had attended the ceremony. But the larger story was one of reconciliation. The Bosniak mayor of Srebrenica, Camil Durakovic, condemned the attackers, and he was joined by the Tripartite Presidents in condemning the attackers. After the attack, the Serbian Prime Minister said that it should not distract attention from the innocent victims of Srebrenica. He said that his ``arms of reconciliation remain stretched towards the Bosniaks.'' Fortunately, we heard the same from the mayor of Srebrenica, who actually had invited the Prime Minister. I am very proud of Mayor Durakovic because he is actually a Bosnian- American whose family fled from Srebrenica in July of 1995, and they settled in New Hampshire. He went to high school there, and he got a degree from Southern New Hampshire University. He returned to Srebrenica in 2005 and was elected mayor in 2012. Aside from that isolated, unfortunate incident with the Prime Minister, the ceremony was a solemn tribute and remembrance to the victims of Srebrenica. There was a spirit of unity and harmony. The theme again and again was of reconciliation.…”