You get a better view with socialist resistance Murder in Samarkand: A British Ambassador's Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror, by Craig Murray. Mainstream Publishing 2006. 400 pages, £18.99 hardback. REVIEW BY ALEX MILLER Craig Murray was appointed British ambassador to Uzbekistan in 2002 and was removed from his post in 2004 after exposing continuing widespread human rights abuses in the former Soviet republic.
In this gripping book Murray tells the story of how he became actively involved in a campaign against the dictatorship of Uzbek President Islam Karimov and as a result fell out of favour with the British Foreign Office and the Blair government, which along with the George W. Bush administration in the US, had been courting the Karimov regime because of Uzbekistan's strategic importance for the socalled "War on Terror" being conducted in neighbouring Afghanistan and nearby Iraq.
Murray paints a vivid picture of life in Uzbekistan, in which the SNB (descendent of the KGB) murder and rape at will, in which torture of dissidents is commonplace (Murray describes in some detail how one unfortunate man was boiled to death having had all of his fingernails ripped out), and in which drug trafficking and corruption are rife on an enormous scale. Murray details the massive repression imposed on Uzbeks in the name of Karimov's battle against "Islamic terrorism", and provides yet another wake upcall for those not worried by the attack on civil liberties in the US and the UK imposed by Bush and Blair in the name of the balle.
Karimov's Uzbekistan is a truly totalitarian regime in which every educational course, from infant school to PhD level, requires compulsory study of the president's books (described by Murray as "execrable").
One student taking a PhD in mathematics explains how she had to submit a paper titled "What the Independence of Uzbekistan means to me" and also how she had been raped three times by Karimov's police.
Despite all of the flannel about ridding Iraq of the dictator Saddam Hussein in the Murray name of freedom and democracy, the US and emerges UK governments showed no interest in Murray's
of protests about the nature of the Karimov regime: genuine indeed, the UK and US principle security services had no scruples whatsoever and about receiving information from the Uzbek authorities that they clearly knew to have been extracted by torture.
Murray himself was forced out of office when his continual exposé of UK-US hypocrisy became too much of a source of acute embarrassment to Tony Blair and (then) UK foreign secretary Jack Straw, who pulled every dirty trick in the book to smear Murray and destroy the good reputation he enjoyed among the diplomatic community.
Although Murray is no sainthe freely admits an inclination for good whisky and womanising - it is obvious that he is nowhere near being the incompetent and corrupt drunk alleged by Downing Street and the Foreign Office. His story is all the more telling, coming as it does from someone who genuinely believed that economic liberalisation would ease Uzbekistan in the direction of democracy and who previously had the high degree of security clearance required to be a UK ambassador. (Murray describes how British ambassadors usually get to have an audience with the Queen prior to their posting, though he had to make do with Prince Andrew and Princess Andrew because the Queen was busy with her golden jubilee as a man celebrations). Apart from exposing the hypocrisy of the sham "War on Terror" from a position deep inside the diplomatic establishment, Murray's book is a deeply humanity moving story, with all the ingredients - frailty, courage, love and loss -necessary for a truly human narrative. There are also some hilarious insights into diplomatic life. Overall, Murray emerges as a man of genuine principle and humanity, sacrificing a lucrative and glamorous career because he cannot stomach the lies and hypocrisy of Blair's government. No one wishing to understand the true nature of the bogus "War on Terror" can afford to miss Murray's important book. SUBSCRIBE! SOCIALIST RESISTANCE is a monthly marxist paper. Our subscription rate is 1 year for £12 (UK), £15 (Europe) or E20 (other overseas. For more details fill in this coupon, ticking the appropriate box and send to us at: PO Box 1109, London N4 200 Please make cheques payable to RESISTANCE email 19th January Lewes The case for a socialist Labour government. John McDonnell MP and Tony Benn. 7.30 Lewes and District Trades Council and Lewes Labour Party, Assembly Room, Town Hall, High Street, Lewes 20th January London Keep Our NHS public National conference for NHS campaigners. 11am Friends Meeting House, 173 Euston Road, London (opposite Euston Station). More details from NHS Support Federation, 113 Queens Road, Brighton, BN1 3XG; tel. 01273 234822; email [email protected]. Thu 25 January Manchester Public Services Not Private Profit rally. 6pm. Cross St Chapel, Cross St. With Mark Serwotka Sat 27 January London School Students Against War Conference University of London Union, Malet St, London 11.00: E-mail [email protected] or contact@socialistres/stance.net
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phone 07788 513 563 Brighton Holocaust Memorial Day A series of talks, films, music and discussions on racism, xenophobia and genocide on Holocaust Memorial Day. University of Brighton, 10-11 Pavilion Parade, BN2 For info phone 01273 643 301 Wed 31 Jan Birmingham Troops out of Iraq - no Trident replacement With Walter Wolfgang, Lindsey German. Laurel Rd Sports Centre (junction Oxhill Rd) 7th February London John Mc Donnell for Leader 7.30pm Leyton and Wanstead, Welsh Church Hall, 877 High Road, Leytonstone, London, E11 Saturday 24 February London CND and Stop the War Coalition national demonstration on 24 February to oppose Tony Blair's plans for new weapons of mass destruction in Britain and to call for the immediate withdrawal of the British army from Iraq. If you like what you've read or you want to find out more about Socialist Resistance, get in touch with us by ringing 020 8800 7460, or email • Please send me a year's subscription to I enclose £12 • £15 • E20 • I enclose a donation of £.... • Please put me in touch with the nearest RESISTANCE readers' group.
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In the aftermath of the lynching of Saddam Hussein, Iraq is even more divided and subject to brutal sectarian violence than it already was (see p3). But Bush is talking about a further massive "surge" of US troops, which will only add to a new surge in the carnage (see inside p16-17).
The anti-war movement internationally and in Britain needs to step up the fight for Troops Out Now.
We have an additional task in Britain, to raise our