We're a long way from the days of Craig Murray, the maverick British ambassador who exposed Uzbekistan's human rights abuses and alleged his country's complicity in the persecution of dissidents, an act that led to his dismissal from the foreign service.
The United Kingdom has evidently decided to warm up to Uzbekistan this year, to the dismay of human rights activists.
In an acid headline "British Diplomats Toadying to Uzbek Dictator's Daughter," the independent Uzbek website uznews.net scored Ambassador Rupert Joy, British envoy to Uzbekistan, and Steve McNulty, director of the British Council for what they described as "ensuring prestige and acknowledgement" for Karimova even as Uzbek child labor is exploited in the cotton harvest now.
The British Council was among the sponsors of the style.uz fashion week in Tashkent last week, and both Britisn officials were present at a press conference in Tashkent October 12. Ambassador Joy said Karimova's Forum Fund was establishing cooperation between Uzbekistan and the United Kingdom and that he was "impressed with the enthusiasm and curiosity of Uzbek youth," says uznews.net. In a blog post October 16, Murray calls the current British ambasador's flanking of Karimova at a press conference "unforgiveable".
Juliette Williams, founding director of the London-based Environmental Justice Foundation, a group that has published reports on forced child labor in the Uzbek cotton industry, expressed "regret over the British ambassador’s involvement in Gulnara Karimova’s project," uznews.net reported.
Karimova used the occasion of style.uz to launch the Central Asian edition of L'Officiel , the Paris-based fashion magazine, featuring her own Guli line.
Independent Uzbek journalists were also gritting their teeth over the decision of Spanish tenor Jose Carreras to sing for Karimova at style.uz at a concert with tickets as high as $500, out of reach of most Uzbek citizens. Uznews.net likened Carreras' appearance to the controversial appearance in Tashkent earlier this year of British singer Sting, who reportedly earned more than £1m for a concert sponsored by the Uzbek government. Sting later apologized for his performance, and called Karimov "tyrannical".
Judging from the plaintive queries from the style.uz Facebook group members, tickets to the week's events seemed to be hard to obtain for ordinary mortals.
For more teeth-gritting, check out a YouTube making the Facebook rounds now, Julio Iglesias singing "Besame Mucho" with Karimova in 2008.
With Karimova in the headlines again, the semi-official news site uzmetronom.com took a swipe at the dictator's daughter, questioning her diplomatic credentials as she wasn't listed as Uzbekistan's ambassador to Spain on the UN website un.int. It turns out she is listed as Spanish ambassador on the Geneva-based unog.org, however, and is also shown as Uzbekistan's envoy to the UN organizations there.
Zeromax, the company Karimova is often reputed to be associated with, was seized by the Uzbek government earlier this year and its CEO and other executives are now on trial. Nothing is said about the affair in the official Uzbek press and only Western news sources speculate on various possible reasons for the break-up.The company website hasn't had any news since March. Lately Karimova's PR strategy seems to be to whip up various charity, art, and fashion events to establish her reputation well apart from the disgraced company.
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