OPEN LETTER TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS: On the Duty to Truth and Accountability in the Case of Former Ambassador Michael Murphy

Honorable Members of the House and Senate,
custodians of a Republic that once taught the world the meaning of freedom,

We write not from anger, but from sorrow; not from fear, but from faith — faith that the United States remains what it claims to be: a nation of law, conscience, and honor.

For thirty years Bosnia-Herzegovina has lived a cease-fire masquerading as a future. Into that limbo came many envoys. Some to help, some to rule, some to stay forever. Among them was Michael Murphy, Ambassador of the United States.

Today he is out of office yet loudly present, re-drafting his own past, polishing the nameplate that history is already tarnishing. He writes, not as an observer, but as an author desperate to edit the very record he left behind.

I. Trust is the Currency of a Republic

Alexander Hamilton warned that the gravest impeachments concern breaches of public trust.
While representing your flag, Ambassador Murphy personally intervened to halt criminal proceedings against Selmo Cikotić, a man tied to the disappearance and killing of Croatian civilians in Bugojno. “Stability,” he called it. Yet there is no stability without justice, nor excuse for shielding war crimes behind a diplomatic badge.

Why was one indicted official worth the moral credit of the United States?
Whose favor was purchased?
Who profited from a silence bought at the price of the dead?

These are questions only Congress can compel him to answer.

II. The Boots and the Mirror

In Bosnia, details are never trivial; symbols carry whole histories.
Reliable witnesses testify that Mr. Murphy met Croatian and Serbian leaders shod in cowboy boots, while Bosniak leaders were greeted in polished diplomatic shoes. (Only Bakir Izetbegović required softer tones and different theater, they whisper.)

Footwear itself offends no one. The attitude inside the boots does.
Respect should not depend on ethnicity; equality should not creak like old leather.
We spare you the rumors about odorous feet—let private witnesses debate perfumes of power. The stench that matters is the intangible one: the odor of unequal dignity.

III. Who, then, Is America?

Ask yourselves: is Michael Murphy the face America wishes to present to the world?

Remember Petar Herceg Tomić, an american WWII hero, a son of Ljubuški, a Bosnian-Herzegovinian Croat who died at Pearl Harbor wearing your uniform. He did not perish for a diplomacy of spurs and double standards. He perished for a flag that once refused to kneel to cynicism.

The same Michael Murphy, while posted in Hercegovina, declined to attend the unveiling of Petar Tomić’s monument in Ljubuški—as the official representative of the nation for which Tomić gave his life. We took that absence as a message; our diaspora in America stood stunned into silence.

IV. Energy, Silence, and a Russian Shadow

Evidence indicates the Ambassador obstructed the Croatia–BiH Southern Gas Interconnector, a strategic project linking us to the Krk LNG terminal and the Atlantic energy space. His maneuvers, intended or not, prolonged Bosnia’s dependence on Russian gas—while Congress itself was legislating against Moscow’s energy grip.

Whose interest was served? Not America’s; not ours.

V. The Strategy of Self-Pity

The Ambassador’s recent newspaper column is not policy analysis. It is a pre-emptive alibi: provoke ethnic outrage, then present that outrage in Washington as proof he merely “defended a civic Bosnia.” Yet this matter is not ideological. It is forensic. It is about acts, not accusations; about the weight of deeds, not the noise of critics.

WHAT WE ASK

1. Why did Ambassador Murphy shield Selmo Cikotić from prosecution?

2. Why did he undermine a U.S.-backed energy corridor and thus favor Russian supply lines?

3. How many times did he exceed or misuse his mandate, and on whose behalf?

We seek no vengeance—only daylight. We ask you to prove that American justice applies even to servants of the stars and stripes. If the Republic is still Hamilton’s and Lincoln’s, it will not allow a diplomat’s boots to trample its own moral charter.

We appeal to your oath.

Open the files. Summon the testimony.
For the honor of the flag Petar Herceg Tomić died to defend—
and for the millions who still wish to believe that America means what it says.

Respectfully,

POSKOK
Movement for the Equality of Indigenous Communities in Bosnia-Herzegovina with the Ottoman-Era Settlers

(This letter may be cited in whole or in part by any legislator, journalist, or institution committed to the pursuit of truth.)