Rummaging around the Bosnian parts of the Internet reveals that there is a deliberate campaign going on to pump out the forged John Major letter.

Postings carrying the text of the article – now removed by the Dnevni Avaz website – The searched-for article does not exist! – are appearing in identical terms all over the place on Islamic and Bosniac websites.

See eg here, here, here and here.

And the odious Avaz itself presses on spewing out lies and propaganda.

It quotes the aged former Bosnian Ambassador to London Muhamed Filipovic as ‘believing in the authenticity of the letter’.

However, the same article also quotes former BH Ambassador to the UN Mo Sacirbegovic, who will have been told clearly back in 1993 that the letter was a fake and so summons a shred of self-respect. He does not exactly endorse the text:

"The letter sounds so sharp that I can scarcely believe it is real".

But Sacirbegovic then duly intones various bizarre allegations:

"I’ve never seen John Major as a racist, but it would not surprise me if his government behaved that way as they had close cooperation with French President Francois Mitterrand…"

Crikey.

Is this what the Bosniac elite are reduced to now?

Why is no-one such as Silajdzic or Tihic or Lagumdzija saying on the record that this is deceitful trash?

Meanwhile, up in Republika Srpska leader Milorad Dodik has had a couple of good ideas.

Namely to ask the BH Assembly to follow the lead of some distinguished European countries and pass two laws:

  • one condemning the Turkish holocaust of Armenians
  • the other banning the covering of faces by burkas

These sly proposals put the Bosniacs squarely on the spot.

First, Dodik is demonstrating (not) his loyal Daytonesque support for BH-level legislation, at least on certain matters of high symbolism.

Second, if the Bosniacs deny the Turkish genocide they will somehow undemine their arguments against Serb acts of genocide in Bosnia. But they dare not accept the motion – Turkey for obvious historical reasons is a huge Bosniac/Bosnia supporter.

Third, if the Bosniacs vote against banning burkas (something quite a few Bosniacs may actually like) they look like extremists.

Welcome to the Balkans.