Srebrenica – A Resolution adopted by The City Council of the City of Chicago, Illinois

Presented by Alderman Silverstein on July 19, 2023

Whereas in July 1995; a genocide took place in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, claiming the lives of more than 8,000 Bosniaks; and

WHEREAS, in addition to the killings, more than 20,000 civilians were expelled from the area in an attempt at ethnic cleansing of the Bosniak population; and

WHEREAS, Srebrenica was declared a “safe area” by the United Nations Security Council in 1993 and was meant to be free from armed attacks-yet the violence and killings continued: and

WHEREAS, Bosnian Serb units captured the town of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, and in less than two weeks carried out the worst act of mass killing in Europe since the end of World War II; and

WHEREAS, Serb forces began separating all males aged 12 and older and imprisoning them in warehouses and lorries; and

WHEREAS, the killing of the unarmed Bosniak men and boys began in July 1995, with at least 8,000 civilians being murdered and buried in mass graves; and

WHEREAS, approximately 15,00 Bosniaks in Srebrenica were shelled and attacked by Serb forces as they attempted to flee across the mountains, with no more than 3,000 of the original group surviving; and

WHEREAS, the first Bosniaks settled in Chicago in the late 19th Century, with the population steadily growing to as many as 70.000 Bosniaks and their descendants living in the Chicago area and founding community centers such as the Bosnian Islamic Cultural Center in Chicago’s 50th Ward; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the Members of the City Council of the City of Chicago. assembled this nineteenth day of July, 2023, do hereby designate July 11. 2023 as “Srebrenica Genocide Remembrance Day” in the City of Chicago, and we condemn the Bosnian genocide in the strongest terms possible, along with all other crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing campaigns around the world.