Back to Craig Murray’s Murder in Samarkand – off with his family to Tashkent (Chapter 3). Uzbekistan was one of the fifteen Soviet republics to become independent in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. Craig offers a few paragraphs on the history of ‘Uzbek independence’, without saying anything about what […]
One version is here. Some speeches are good for what they say. Others for how they make people feel. This speech said more or less nothing, but reads nicely now and no doubt sounded good on the day. Or maybe not? This paragraph caught my eye: This is the moment […]
The steady insight of Lord Owen, with the deafening noise emitted by Simon Jenkins. Good piece in the Independent too. But they spoil it by adding a list of War criminals still at large. These people are not war criminals. They are war crimes suspects or indictees, unless and until they […]
A comment by me adding some operational background on international attempts to arrest Karadzic is up at the Independent’s Open House.
Chandler Rosenberger at National Review Online takes a big picture look at US Balkan policy over the past decade and more. I might disagree with him at various points. He offers a rather US-centric view. But he does bring out well that while thematic, sustained and firm approaches to dealing with […]
Finally. Radovan Karadzic the former Green activist has been arrested, in Belgrade. I never met him. By the time I reached Sarajevo in mid-1996 he was already lying low, although not that low. NATO troops were in effect instructed not to look for him or other war crimes suspects, but to arrest them […]
When Milosevic was abruptly transferred to the Hague Tribunal in June 2001 I dusted off my barristerial wig and sent a lively telegram to London from Belgrade on the theme "Is Milosevic Innocent?". My point was that linking Milosevic to the calamitous events in Bosnia and other non-Serbia parts of former Yugoslavia […]
Chapter two of Craig Murray’s book describes his pre-posting briefing rounds. He heads for Eastern Department, effectively his ‘line management’ people. He finds it hard work: The atmosphere in the department seemed to be unpleasant – heavy, pompous and serious. A pall of misery appeared to have settled. I have […]
Round at the Bruges Group last night to hear a thought-provoking Very Big Picture talk. The argument went like this: not too long ago when Communism ended in Europe there were books about the triumph of democracy, the ‘end of history’ and so on now the emphasis is on Islamic […]
As a chess fan I decided to use my time in Moscow to get to know some of the world’s top players. This was at the time when the world of chess was in turmoil because of Garry Kasparov’s ambitions to make the game more accessible – and more lucrative. […]
