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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MKTBUZZ who wrote (643003)	10/12/2004 3:34:47 AM
From: Skywatcher	Respond to of 769670

Outspoken British envoy may lose job for denouncing Uzbek torture Mon Oct 11, 7:07 PM ET LONDON (AFP) - The British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, could be facing the sack for his outspoken criticism of the regime in Tashkent which he accuses of widespread torture of opponents, a British newspaper said. Murray, 43, has been in Britain and on holiday in Europe since late July and was expected to return this week to Tashkent, where he has been Britain's ambassador since August 2002. But the Guardian newspaper reported that the Foreign Office is considering withdrawing his security clearance, which would effectively remove him from his post. "Craig was all ready to go back when he got a call from the Foreign Office telling him there were problems with his security clearance," said a friend quoted in the newspaper. The Foreign Office has told Murray that his return has been postponed until his security clearance, the high-level vetting that senior diplomats require for their access to sensitive documents, is reviewed, according to the report. Murray, one of Britain's youngest envoys, attracted international attention in 2002 when in a speech to local officials and fellow diplomats he declared that Uzbekistan was not a functioning democracy and highlighted the routine use of torture in prisons. In one case two men were allegedly boiled to death. His 2002 speech, which had been cleared by the Foreign Office, was taken up by United Nations (news - web sites) Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) when he saw President Islam Karimov, in power since 1990. Murray has been bitterly critical of what he sees as the double standards of the United States which has given tens of millions of dollars to Tashkent as an ally in its war against terror and the provider of a military base for the search for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (news - web sites).