UPI
October 15

British expatriates in Uzbekistan are accusing Tony Blair's Foreign Office of bowing to U.S. pressure and recalling outspoken British Ambassador Craig Murray.

At 45, one of British diplomacy's youngest and fastest-rising ambassadors, Murray is now undergoing treatment for "depression" in a London hospital.

Murray, who may have taken too seriously Blair's grandiose speeches on human rights, infuriated his Uzbek hosts with a public attack on Uzbekistan's woeful human rights record at a meeting at Freedom House in Tashkent last October.

"We believe there to be between 7 and 10,000 people in detention whom we would consider as political and/or religious prisoners. In many cases, they have been falsely convicted of crimes with which there appears to be no credible evidence they had any connection," Murray said, angering the U.S. Embassy, which sees Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov as a useful ally in the war on terrorism.

The Foreign Office says his illness is a personal matter.

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