Ikram Yakubov, the Uzbek security service defector, has given his first UK media interview to the first class journalist Neil Mackay of the Sunday Herald. Ikram's testimony is very important, particularly that he personally witnessed a CIA officer present at the torture of Islamic suspects. Remember, the official position of the UK government remains that I was making it all up. They still officially deny the CIA was involved in torture in Uzbekistan, or that we knew about extraordinary rendition. Ikram Yakubov's testimony makes those government lies still harder to maintain. It would be nice to believe that one day there may be a serious parliamentary inquiry into the lies. THE CIA SENT ITS agents into Uzbekistan torture chambers to observe the abuse of alleged Islamic...

Haven't blogged much in the last week, so I thought I would take you through my day yesterday to show the kind of stuff I'm doing. It was a slightly busier day than usual, but really not much. 04.16 Helped Nadira start her day's Ramadan observances 04.45 Got up and dressed properly 05.15 Left home in Shepherds Bush 07.00 Flew London City Airport to Edinburgh 09.30 Meeting of Scottish University Rectors at University of Edinburgh to discuss reaction to Scottish future funding paper. Key points we make: - Overall funding for Scottish University sector inadequate compared to rest of Northern Europe - Lack of opportunity for student input in the "Consultation" process - No discussion of the key question of student support. Average debt for students leaving Scottish Universities now...

Unfortunately reaction to the Russia-Georgia conflict in the blogosphere has tended to be both ill-informed and over-simplified. The right have rushed to back Georgia and sections of the left to back Russia. There has, bluntly, been little worth reading. If I can put on my professional diplomat's hat (having with great reluctance taken off my producer's hat, as the Fringe run of Nadira's show closed yesterday) I would acknowledge that there are many diplomats who are achingly dull and conventional. But the best of them can bring knowledge of the region, languages, cultures and people to bear, and apply it to good effect. So, joining the lod buffers' club, I want warmly to recommend to you the thoughts of Ivor Roberts: What is sauce for the Kosovo goose is sauce for the South Ossetian...

If it wasn't for the border crossings, an eight hour drive from the Eastern border of Uzbekistan would take you into China. There you would be among the Uighurs, a people culturally and linguistically extremely close to the Uzbeks. Like the Tibetans, the Uighurs are culturally, religiously and ethnically oppressed by the highly racist Chnese state. But the Uighurs are Muslims and they do not get the press coverage of the Tibetans, even though their oppression has been still more systematic and brutal. Over a million Uighurs have been displaced by the Chinese state in the last three years alone. Thousands are murdered - either executed or disappeared - every year. The Uighurs are one of a swathe of Turkic peoples across Central Asia, who fell into the thrall of foreign Empires...

Sunday:Daddy Richard says that his review of the next adventure for Mr Dr Paul as Dr Who (with his friend Lucie) from the Big Fish Productions people contains SPOILERS from the very first word… okay, SECOND word… so I've got to keep you occupied for a hundred words of my own so that it doesn't appear on the Blogregator and that you have got time to stop reading my diary, go out to the shops, buy the CD for yourself, listen to it and THEN see what Daddy thought of it.Okay, that's enough time – here's Daddy's review:"Post-communist Autons", that's the best way to summarise this great little story, even if in the accompanying "making of" documentary writer Jonathan Clements says that it all springs from the phrase "Autonomic Autons".(Jonathan also wrote last year's excellent "Immortal...

Platform: Richard Spring MP explains how strong business relations have been integrated into the Party ToryDiary: Shadow Cabinet satisfaction ratings for March and Downing St pulls new website with swastika logo Cameron attracted by idea of cutting VAT on green activities "VAT on bicycles and other "green" purchases such as wind turbines and environmentally friendly light bulbs should be cut, David Cameron suggested yesterday. Addressing businessmen in the City, Mr Cameron, who until now has focused his green tax policies on higher charges for polluters, said he was also keen on rewarding the most environmentally conscious through the tax system." - Telegraph Some expenses finally revealed "Gordon Brown will today admit that the taxpayer has paid his grocery bills in the past, and...

The New Statesman published this article by me: Drink, dictators and belly dancers Craig Murray Published 10 January 2008 I confess that, for me, the festive season passes in a kind of benign blur. As I have never driven, this has limited capacity to hurt anyone else. A friend just suggested to me that, as a good Scot, I shall still be hungover from Hogmanay when people are reading this. Actually, as a good Scot, I shall still be drinking when you are reading this. I am thoroughly fed up with the anti-alcohol propaganda on every broadcast news programme at this time of year. Look at George W Bush. As a wealthy alcoholic, he was a relatively harmless parasite on society. Then he sobered up, found God, and killed millions. Leave alcohol alone - it does much less harm than religion. A...

Islam Karimov is sworn in for a seven-year term as President of Uzbekistan, following elections in December...

I have been reflecting on La Fontaine, who used fables to reflect indirectly on the ways of the powerful. Some poets are more direct in their criticism. In May 2005, hundreds of unarmed demonstrators were shot and killed in Andijan, in Uzbekistan. The poet Yusuf Juma wrote these lines about those who died: The best men of the people were shot in Andijan. Elders like Dukchi-ishan, were shot in Andijan. People were shot in Namangana, shot in Fergana, the very best lions were shot in Andijan. The blind are alive, the jackals are alive, Sharifjan Shokurovs were shot in Andijan. Future Babarakhin Mashrabs were killed, tigers like Babur were shot in Andijan. In their hearts they were wild activists, endurers of the right way, let their graves be full of light, they were...

posted by kPoetry doesn't always translate easily. However, I am posting a complete poem by Yusuf Juma, about the Andijan massacre. The massacre took place on 13 May, 2005 when hundreds of unarmed protesters were killed by Uzbek security services for taking part in a demonstration against the government. Yusuf Juma wrote this poem about the event:The best men of the people were shot in Andijan.Elders like Dukchi-ishan, were shot in Andijan. People were shot in Namangana, shot in Fergana,the very best lions were shot in Andijan.The blind are alive, the jackals are alive,Sharifjan Shokurovs were shot in Andijan. Future Babarakhin Mashrabs were killed,tigers like Babur were shot in Andijan. In their hearts they were wild activists, endurers of the right way,let...

posted by kThe Uzbek poet Yusuf Juma has been arrested. So far as I can discover, his "crime" was exhibiting a poster opposing President Karimov in the recent elections.A petition is currently circulating making the following requests: 1. information about whereabouts of Yusuf Juma and members of his family; 2. humane treatment for Yusuf Juma and members of his family, who are under detention; 3. to allow his lawyer access to Yusuf Juma and other arrested members of his family in prison; 4. to demand their immediate release from detention; 5. to stop persecution of the family members and relatives of Yusuf Juma and provide protection to the family of Yusuf Juma and their relatives. I shall post more details later. Meanwhile, here is a list of addresses, e-addresses...

Uzbekistan have just re-elected their leader- Uzbekistan’s authoritarian President Islam Karimov won a new term in office with 88.1 percent of the votes in an election dismissed by critics as a sham, according to figures released by the Central Elections Commission on Monday.  And Ethiopia are trying to lock up anyone who found a few things amiss with their election- An Ethiopian court has convicted two rights activists of inciting an uprising against the government. Bekele, who worked for ActionAid, and Netsanet, who worked for an aid group supported by ActionAid, were involved in deploying observers at polling stations in and around the capital, Addis Ababa.  But don’t worry they are our allies fighting for freedom and democracy and…er, um puppies?...

Uzbekistan's president wins 88% of the vote in Sunday's election, which monitors have dismissed as a sham....

People in Uzbekistan vote in a presidential election widely expected to be won by incumbent Islam Karimov....

Good interview with Nadira in the Sunday Times today. It is brilliant that she now gets to tell her own story, and it certainly opens up a huge raft of questions. Apparently there are some great photos in the newspaper, which they haven't put on the net. From The Sunday TimesDecember 9, 2007 Ambassador’s belly dancer stages her life The theatre show recounts Nadira Alieva’s life as a child drug runner and how she was raped twice Christina Lamb THE belly-dancing mistress of Britain’s controversial former ambassador to Uzbekistan is to perform her life story on the London stage in an attempt to change her image. The British Ambassador’s Belly Dancer, which opens in January at the Arcola theatre in Hackney, tells the story of Nadira Alieva, the Uzbek dancer who captured the...

Amnesty International have put out the following urgent appeal in the case of Ikhtiyor Hamroev. This means a lot to me because Ikhtiyor came out with his father Bakhtiyor to save me from a potentially extremely dangerous situtation when our Land Rover crashed on the ice in minus 30 degrees centigrade (Murder in Samarkand pages 140 to 143). The Hamroev family have suffered five years of continual assaults since. Torture/health concern/possible prisoner of conscience UZBEKISTAN Ikhtior Khamroev (m), aged 22, student Ikhtior Khamroev, who has been in jail since September 2006, was reportedly severely beaten on 29 November. Sources inside the prison have told his father that Ikhtior had also received stab wounds to the abdomen, but was locked in a punishment cell...

Dave Warnock tells us that American arms company Lockheed Martin are in line to run the 2011 National Census.I would have thought it impossible that a Labour Government would hand the census to an arms company but until this week I thought it inconceivale that a Labour Government would have a policy of deporting Uzbeki dissidents to the tender care of Boiler Karimov!Anyhow in the hope that democracy isn't quite dead, I suggest signing this petition on the Number 10 website.More sense on this matter from Pam BG. And here is a vidoe on the matter from The Green Party.Also I recommend this post from Peace Church.I couldn't live with myself if I filled in the Census with a company like this running the show. Please protect me from acquiring a criminal record by writing to MPs or anyone with...

Craig Murray - A Low Point: Jahongir Sidikov is still in detention at Heathrow, having offered passive resistance to the attempt to deport him today. Next time they will use staff authorised and equipped to use force. I am deeply depressed. All yesterday I was working on trying to save him from being returned to the horrors of the Karimov regime's treatment of dissidents, and it was like living inside a nightmare... I am still in a genuine state of shock and disbelief that we should start shipping asylum seekers back to Uzbekistan, of all places. It is as though the government have gone into official denial of what kind of place Uzbekistan is. I am also astonished that I have been met with complete indifference from everybody - officials, MPs and journalists. I can't get anybody to take...

Please read this article about the brutal realities of the regime to whom our unprincipled government intend to deport Jahongir Sidikov.Let is be clear. The Karimov regime in Uzbekhistan is a bloodstained tyranny that is incapable of telling the truth. For God's sake get the story out and contact your MPs and anyone who can help. Let's get busy so that we do not become Karimov's accomplices!http://turbulentcleric Turbulent...

This letter to the Times, Independent and ITV comes from the comments on Craig Murray's blog;Dear Editor,Until this day I believed for freedom of media and its role in civil liberties in this country. But information I have read today slightly changed my mind. I do not know if you are aware or not but UK government is going to send back failed asylum seeker to Uzbekistan and it means UK government is probably most definitely is going to be involved in murder of this asylum seeker. His name is Jahongir Sidikov. Uzbekistan is the country run by one of the most cruel and brutal dictator in modern world. I myself from Uzbekistan and I also came here as asylum seeker before and you can believe me I know what is going to happen to Jahongir Sidikov if he is sent back to that dark place. I was...

Jahongir Sidikov is still in detention at Heathrow, having offered passive resistance to the attempt to deport him today. Next time they will use staff authorised and equipped to use force. I am deeply depressed. All yesterday I was working on trying to save him from being returned to the horrors of the Karimov regime's treatment of dissidents, and it was like living inside a nightmare. Together with an Uzbek friend, we got in an emergency application to the European Court of Human Rights for an Article 39 stay on deportation as Jahongir's life was in danger. This involved my friend filling and faxing numerous forms. I spoke with the legal officers filing the report to the Court, and with the National Council for Assisting Deportees who told me that a temporary stay was...

There is another profile of Alisher Usmanov in the Guardian today which gives him an easy ride. But the Guardian also publish on the web the full text of their email interview, which is much more revealing: http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2212432,00.html Given that these email answers will almost certainly have been provided in close consultation with Schillings and Finsbury, they are not very convincing in many areas. The Guardian's excellent David Conn has also done some good digging. The Guardian pretty effectively kill off Schillings' lie that Gorbachev was responsible for Usmanov's pardon. And there is strong proof of my statement that Karimov fixed it for him - The Guardian show that Usmanov himself was on record as telling David Owen so nine years ago. This fits...

It is worth stating the obvious - Musharraf has always been a military dictator, strongly supported by the US and the UK. He has not just become a military dictator. What he has just done is tighten authoritarian control, clamping down on the press, opposition parties and the judiciary. He is becoming a worse despot, taking long strides down the road of authoritarianism, and dashing fond hopes that he may be set on gradually returning democracy. The timing of his pressing of the panic button seems dictated by a need to pre-empt the Supreme Court finding his re-appointment as President unconstitutional. Its connection to Benazir Bhutto's return is confusing, but her initial statements seem to be condemnatory, short of actually doing anything about it. It has to be said that, with very...

Occasionally you read a review from someone who really "gets" what I am trying to do, and it gives you a lovely warm feeling inside. For me, that feeling is redoubled when that person is writing from somewhere I have never heard of. So here is a review from the Kingston Observer (that's Kingston USA, not Jamaica). No. I don't know where it is either. But I'm definitely going to go there one day now. Before the torture scandals of Abu Ghraib became public, there was the matter of the prisoner who was boiled to death in Uzbekistan. Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to that country, learned of this tragedy and exposed it, urging the British government to distance itself from U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. propped up the repressive Uzbek regime with half a billion dollars yearly...

1. Craig Murray - A Dark, Dark Place: I cannot believe Alisher Saipov is dead. When last I saw him he can only have been 23 years old, and was so brimming with energy, life and optimism. Now at 26 he is dead, just the latest dissident to be murdered by the Karimov regime. (more) 2. Septicisle - It really is all about the oil. Oh, and don't forget the arms deals.: Petty insults aside, the sheer gall of New Labour in inviting those ultimately responsible for the torture of four British citizens wrongly arrested for a series of bombings in the country shouldn't be surprising, but the pulling out of all the stops for their visit is the equivalent of a kick in the teeth to those who dare to suggest that the government ought to be consistent in its approach to all those who deny basic human...

Last week Ewan McGregor lambasted Britain's "nanny state" following a motorbike journey across Africa with fellow actor and best friend Charley Boorman. The journey was filmed and will be shown as a series called the Long Way Down starting tonight. "Our trip opened my eyes to how insane the rules are in Britain - CCTV cameras everywhere, congestion charge - a ludicrous nanny state. If anything drives me out of the country it will be that - not tax, I don't earn enough." Referring to a boat stunt performed in 2005 by Daniel Craig when was unveiled as the new James Bond (he was made to wear a life jacket) "Today, health and safety are out of control. In Africa, garage attendants smoked as they filled the bikes. I took great pleasure in that." Yes there are plenty of things that...

I cannot believe Alisher Saipov is dead. When last I saw him he can only have been 23 years old, and was so brimming with energy, life and optimism. Now at 26 he is dead, just the latest dissident to be murdered by the Karimov regime. There is a lovely tribute from Natalia Antaleva here. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2200568,00.html Coming so hard on the murder of my friend Mark Weil, I really am overwhelmed by the sheer horror of it all. http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2970807.ece The dissident movement in Uzbekistan has been almost entirely exiled, incarcerated or murdered now, and the state becomes ever more of a nightmare. I find it crushing - and I am not even an Uzbek. There is an absolutely vital item on Uzbekistan coming on BBC2...

The US edition of Murder in Samarkand has finally hit the shops, under the title of Dirty Diplomacy. Be warned that it is basically the same book, and I do not recommend you to buy both. Dirty Diplomacy is however a different cut from an original manuscript. So while slightly shorter than Murder in Samarkand, it includes some passages which were not in the UK version, and is less heavily censored because of the protections for freedom of speech in the US. Here is a pre-publication review from Booklist, a library and bookseller trade magazine: Dirty Diplomacy. Murray, Craig (Author) Oct 2007. 368 p. Scribner, hardcover, $26.00. (1416548017). 958.70. Must diplomacy involve duplicity? Murray, an energetic and forthright British diplomat, moved his family to Tashkent in 2002 with high...

The Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website is not one I regularly visit but I was intrigued by a recent item about Alisher Usmanov . If it is true then Usmanov may have his sights on a prize far bigger than just a north London football club. Apparently he is seen as a possible heir to Islom Karimov, the current president of UzbekistanMuch of the article covers ground which will now be very familiar to anyone following Usmanov’s ham fisted attempt to silence Craig Murray and Tim Ireland, the outrage it caused within the blogosphere and his subsequent charm offensive (feeding lazy journalists first rate food and wine and fourth rate spin) However it notes that Craig Murray and others are convinced that Usmanov harbours “significant ambitions” regarding his Central Asian...

If you read the awful Mark Franchetti article (see below) and strip it of spin, some facts do emerge which confirm the truth of my account. - Usmanov's "pardon" did indeed come from Uzbekistan and had nothing to do with Mikhail Gorbachev, contrary to the lies of Schillings - Usmanov was never a political prisoner opposed to communism. He was indeed convicted for corrupt dealings. He claims he was the accidental victim of a friend being set up - even if that were true, it does not make him an anti-communist political prisoner, which is how Schillings attempted to portray him. - I published that Key to this triumph has been the Uzbek oligarch Alisher Usmanov, chairman of Gazprominvest Holdings. This subsidiary is the channel for massive slush funds. In November 2004, for example, a...