Britain's suspended ambassador to Uzbekistan described human rights abuse in the Central Asian state as "brutal," and argued that his outspoken criticism of it had embarrassed London and cost him his job, in an interview published yesterday.
"Very little can prepare you for the brutality and viciousness of the Karimov regime," Craig Murray told the Daily Telegraph, referring to Uzbek President Islam Karimov.
The Foreign Office said last week that Murray, the ambassador for more than two years, was being withdrawn "for operational reasons," not as a disciplinary action.
But Murray has alleged he was a "victim of conscience" for outspoken criticism of Karimov, and that Foreign Secretary Jack Straw played a role in his dismissal.
He has also said that he intends to start legal action against the British government.
Uzbekistan is a key ally in the US-led military campaign in neighboring Afghanistan, which is supported by Britain.
Karimov, a hardline Soviet-era leader, has clung to power, imprisoning opponents or forcing them into exile while seeking to limit radical Islamic groups. He been widely accused of human rights abuses including torture.
Murray described how political dissidents sought help from the British embassy, "turn[ing] up at my door, with broken teeth and burns from torture."
Shortly after meeting one dissident, he told the newspaper, the man's grandson was killed. "They left his body on the doorstep ... It was a warning not to speak to me," he said.
He also stunned a group of diplomats, Uzbek officials and aid workers in a speech in which he said the diplomatically unsayable: "Uzbekistan is not a functioning democracy, nor does it appear to be moving in the direction of democracy."
Murray's removal from the ambassador's post comes after The Financial Times published a secret Foreign Office report he wrote complaining that British intelligence services used information obtained by Uzbekistan using torture.
"Tortured dupes are forced to sign confessions showing what the Uzbek government wants the US and UK to believe -- that they and we are fighting the same war against terror ... This is morally, legally and practically wrong," the report read.
"I will not attempt to hide my ... shame that I work in an organization where colleagues would resort to it to justify torture -- I have to deal with hundreds of individual cases of political or religious prisoners in Uzbekistan, and I have met very few where torture was not employed," it continued.
The Foreign Office has said that Murray, 45, is officially still part of the diplomatic corps, will be moved to other duties "in due course."
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