Letter to the Clerk of the Committee from
the Parliamentary Relations and Devolution Department, Foreign
and Commonwealth Office, 17 May 2004
TIMES
ARTICLE
Thank you for your letter of 22 April recording
the Committee's request for the FCO's comments on an article "Envoy
defies Whitehall gag to attack Uzbekistan rights record".
The article is set in the context of Uzbekistan's
human rights record. We have been forthright in our criticism
of this. We shall continue in public and in private to raise human
rights issues and individual cases, together with EU partners
and the wider international community. Bill Rammell spelt this
out in the House of Commons on 16 December 2003. Mike O'Brien
raised our concerns with the visit of Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister
on 4 February. Our Ambassador, Craig Murray, as the article reports,
is also active in this area. As Bill Rammell indicated to the
Committee in evidence on 28 January 2003, the position he has
taken on human rights has the full endorsement of Her Majesty's
Government. The FCO's Annual Human Rights Report in 2003 reprinted
in full the speech the Ambassador gave at Freedom House in Tashkent
and which the article refers to as having "caused a storm".
The article makes a number of suggestions about
Craig Murray's return to the UK last year. It would not be appropriate
for us to comment on his personal circumstances or on the suggestions
made about his private life. But I do want to emphasise that his
return had nothing to do with his comments on human rights. As
far as contacts with the UK media are concerned, FCO guidance
on referring requests for interviews to London in the first instance
apply to all Ambassadors.
Matthew Hamlyn
Parliamentary Relations and Devolution Department
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
17 May 2004
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