randomWalks

From Confessions of a British diplomat by Paul Reynolds:

Should an ambassador speak out over human rights even if this upsets his or her own government?

The question has been posed by the dismissal from his post as British ambassador to Uzbekistan of Craig Murray, whose disagreements with his own government about how to handle human rights abuses by his host government have become very public. (...)

The last straw for his bosses came when a memo he wrote to London complaining about its attitude was printed in the Financial Times.

He denies having leaked it himself, but he has confirmed that what was said in the telegram is indeed his view. (...)

For his part, Mr Murray is unapologetic.

He has seen appalling evidence of torture and murder and feels that the war on terror declared by President Bush has led to a blind eye being turned in Uzbekistan where the authoritarian President Islam Karimov has clamped down not only on Islamic dissent but on all dissent.

One of his most searing memories is that of being told that, six hours after he met a professor of literature from Samarkand who had complained about the torture of dissidents, a body was dumped on the man's doorstep. It was his grandson. One arm appeared to have been boiled until the skin fell off.

"I wrestle with my conscience greatly over whether I caused that boy's horrible death," Mr Murray said later.

His view now is that the Foreign Office is being "politicised" and that his dismissal is indeed for political reasons, because he blew the whistle on the practice of accepting intelligence from the Uzbeks which they got from torture.

Would that more public servants -- not just in the UK -- were as brave as Mr Murray.

[ via die puny humans ]