Murder in Samarkand - Craig Murray

[Freewheeling Andy]

When Craig Murray was appointed British ambassador to Uzbekistan in 2002 he was a high-flying star of the Foreign Office diplomatic corps. He was slightly unconventional in approach, but considered to be one of the top men for the future, and was Britain's youngest ambassador at the time of appointment.

 

He arrived at an embassy in a mess. Under-staffed, under-resourced and full of friction, particularly between British and Uzbek staff. He set about trying to sort this out, whilst trying to do a proper ambassador's job of looking after British interests in the country.

 

It didn't take him too long to discover that Uzbekistan was the last of the old style Soviet states. Run by Islam Karimov as megalomaniac dictator, it was also a key country in the US led war on terror. There were US airbases in the country, and as a predominantly muslim country there was huge propoganda for the US when Uzbekistan was on side in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

What Murray found was that the Uzbeks regularly tortured and abused their citizens, that there were astonishing human rights abuses, that there was massive corruption, and there weren't even the faintest hints of democracy.

 

The use of torture by the Uzbek military was particularly relevent as they sent reports back to the US which were used as part of the "information" in the war on terror.

 

For reasons unknown, the US was happy to take all this at face value, although fundamentally they were being told that Uzbekistan was full of extreme muslim terrorists, a lie which meant the US gave Uzbekistan more support and more credibility. A vicious circle of perniciousness.

 

This book is Murray's tale of how he ended up helping the Uzbeks, helping British business, pushing the line of human rights against the wishes of the Americans. And finding out that it was against the wishes of his own government, too.

 

And over time, this is the story of how the British government slowly seditiously undermined their own Ambassador because he was embarassing them in the press, by showing up their complicity.

 

Part travelogue, part indictment of the war on terror, this is a great fun book in places as Murray romps across the desert saving people from police goons, or pursuing and eyeing up beautiful women, but a book about torture can't be all fun. The part where Murray has to defend himself against trumped up charges from the foreign office and (it is very strongly implied) Jack Straw leaves you gobsmacked about the cycnicism of our government.

 

This book reads like "Fitzroy Maclean Gets Shafted By His Own Government". A highly fulfilling read.