Craig Murray

Craig Murray (born 17 October 1958) is a commentator on government foreign policy and was a British diplomat. He was the United Kingdom's Ambassador to Uzbekistan, until removed from his post on October 14, 2004. While in this office he publicly criticised the human rights situation in Uzbekistan, against the wishes of the British government, an action that he alleges was the reason for his removal. He also privately criticised the UK government for committing torture by proxy, that is, sending terrorist suspects to Uzbekistan for their security services to extract intelligence of dubious value; in the phrase he is best known for, he accused his government of "selling our souls for dross".

Background

Murray was educated at a British state school, followed by the University of Dundee where he graduated in 1982 with a MA (Hons) 1st Class in Modern History. He was an outspoken, but highly popular, President of Dundee University Students Association, achieving the unusual distinction of being elected to office twice (1982-1983 and 1983-1984). He joined the civil service in 1984. Until 2002, he worked for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Africa, apart from 1992 to 1997, when he worked for it in Europe. In 2002, he became UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan, and was dismissed from that post in October 2004. He had been scheduled to continue in that post until November 2005.

In February 2004, the Mail on Sunday reported his affair with Nadira Alieva. Soon after, his wife left him. In July 2004, he told The Guardian that "there is no point in having cocktail-party relationships with a fascist regime," and that "you don't have to be a pompous old fart to be an ambassador." [1] He is separated from his wife Fiona, with whom he has a son (born 1988) and a daughter (born 1994).

Uzbekistan

In October 2002, on becoming concerned that torture and extra-judicial killings were taking place in Uzbekistan, he made a controversial speech at a human rights conference in Tashkent, in which he claimed that "Uzbekistan is not a functioning democracy" and saying of the boiling to death of two men, "all of us know that this is not an isolated incident." The speech was cleared by the Foreign Office, but not before a dispute over its content. Later, Kofi Annan confronted Uzbekistan president Islam Karimov with Murray's claims.

He was summoned to London and, on 8 March 2003, he was reprimanded for writing, in a letter to his employers, in response to a speech by George W. Bush, "when it comes to the Karimov regime, systematic torture and rape appear to be treated as peccadilloes, not to affect the relationship and to be downplayed in the international fora ... I hope that once the present crisis is over we will make plain to the US, at senior level, our serious concern over their policy in Uzbekistan."

Discipline charges

In July 2003, some of his embassy staff were sacked while he was away on holiday. They were reinstated after he expressed his outrage to his bosses in the FCO. Later during his holiday, he was recalled to London for disciplinary reasons. On 21 August 2003, he was confronted with 18 charges including "hiring dolly birds for above the usual rate" for the visa department (though he claims that it had an all-male staff) and granting UK visas in exchange for sex. He was told that discussing the charges would be a violation of the Official Secrets Act punishable by imprisonment. He claims that he was encouraged to resign.

He collapsed during a medical check in Tashkent on 2 September 2003 and was flown to St Thomas' Hospital. After an investigation by Tony Crombie, Head of the FCO's Overseas Territories Department, all but two of the charges (being drunk at work and misusing the embassy's Range Rover) were dropped. The charges were leaked to the press in October 2003. [2] When he returned to work in November 2003, he suffered a near fatal pulmonary embolism. In January 2004, the Foreign Office exonerated him of the 18 charges, but reprimanded him for speaking about the charges.

Removal from post

Murray was removed from his post in October 2004, shortly after a leaked report in the Financial Times [3] quoted him as claiming that MI6 used intelligence gained by the Uzbek authorities by torture. The Foreign Office denied there was any direct connection and stated that Mr Murray had been removed for "operational" reasons. It claimed that he had lost the confidence of senior officials and colleagues. In a radio interview the folowing day, Murray countered that he was a "victim of conscience", and in this and other interviews criticised the Foreign Office.[4] A few days later he was charged with "gross misconduct" by the Foreign Office for criticising it in public.[5] Murray resigned from the Foreign Office in February 2005.

Subsequent career

He stood for parliament in Blackburn, as an independent candidate, against his former boss Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in the May 2005 general election. He came fifth with 5% of votes.

He is reported to have undergone emergency live-saving heart surgery at the end of May 2005. He was unable to fulfil an engagement with PEN UK, the organisation for international writers' freedom, and this was the reason given. This follows previous cardiac crises while under the strain of trying to get the UK government to oppose torture in Uzbekistan.

In December 2005, frustrated at the Foreign Office's failure to clear for publication some content of his memoirs, he published a number of confidential memos on his website outlining his condemnation of intelligence procured under torture, and the UK government's ambivalence to this.

In case of "Spycatcher"-type problems, these are reproduced below from his website http://www.craigmurray.org.uk

Banned extracts

First document: Condidential letters from Uzbekistan

(moved to Wikisource)

Second Document

Summary of legal opinion from Michael Wood arguing that it is legal to use information extracted under torture:

From: Michael Wood, Legal Advisor

Date: 13 March 2003

CC: PS/PUS; Matthew Kidd, WLD

Linda Duffield

UZBEKISTAN: INTELLIGENCE POSSIBLY OBTAINED UNDER TORTURE

1. Your record of our meeting with HMA Tashkent recorded that Craig had said that his understanding was that it was also an offence under the UN Convention on Torture to receive or possess information under torture. I said that I did not believe that this was the case, but undertook to re-read the Convention.

2. I have done so. There is nothing in the Convention to this effect. The nearest thing is article 15 which provides:

"Each State Party shall ensure that any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made."

3. This does not create any offence. I would expect that under UK law any statement established to have been made as a result of torture would not be admissible as evidence.

[signed]

M C Wood Legal Adviser

External links

Murray

Craig Murray's website
- Timeline of Craig Murray's ambassadorship in Uzbekistan
Speech at Chatham House (PDF) - Monday 8 November 2004
British Embassy, Tashkent Press And Public Affairs - links to some speeches and interviews
The Uses of Torture - Speech transcript, February 2005
Craig Murray's Campaign in Blackburn

Press