HUNGARY - Tear gas used at Hungary protests

[Guest guest]

Monday, 23 October 2006,

15:01 GMT 16:01 UK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tear

gas used at Hungary protests

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anti-government

protesters held parallel events

 

 

 

 

 

 

Police in Hungary have fired tear gas on crowds of about 1,000

demonstrators during the 50th anniversary of the country's revolt against Soviet

rule.

The local MTI news agency said

tear gas was used outside parliament, where local and foreign officials had

laid flowers to commemorate the revolt.

Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany has faced bitter opposition

after admitting that he lied to win re-election.

Some veterans of the 1956 uprising refused to shake hands with

him.

MTI reported that tear gas was also used

at Budapest's Western Railway

Station and that water cannon was used at another location.

The agency said that the protesters had been throwing stones and

pieces of metal at security forces.

A Reuters cameraman said 20 tear-gas canisters had been fired,

along with rubber bullets.

Police had earlier broken up angry protests ahead of formal

ceremonies to mark the 1956 uprising and cleared hundreds of protesters from

Hero's Square in the city centre.

Protesters have been present outside parliament for weeks.

President Laszlo Solyom has appealed for national unity.

He said the entire nation shared the demand for Hungarian

independence during the uprising, which was suppressed in a bloody

intervention by Soviet forces.

Boycott

Monday's events began with

dignitaries taking turns to place white roses at the black marble monument to

the uprising outside parliament, before heading inside to adopt a declaration

of freedom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hungarian flag

was paraded before international dignitaries

 

 

 

 

 

There was also to be a ceremony of remembrance at

the statue of Imre Nagy, who was the reformist prime minister at the time.

But parallel to all the official events are those held by

opposition groups, says the BBC's Nick Thorpe in Budapest.

Several groups are marching through the city to events at

different locations. It is a confusing picture, and difficult to tell whether

the groups carrying Hungarian flags are marking 1956 or taking part in

anti-government protests, our correspondent says.

The main opposition Fidesz party said it was boycotting official

anniversary events at which Prime Minister Gyurcsany is speaking, and

holding its own rally close to the state radio building, the scene of bitter

fighting in 1956.

Swift response

Mr Gyurcsany caused political uproar recently when he admitted

he had lied to the public about the economy.

But he denied any comparison between Monday's protests and

their 1956 counterparts.

" Despite the often

justified disappointment and discontent, the majority of Hungarians believe

that parliamentary democracy is the most suited to express people's will and to

create law and give a programme to a free Hungary, " he

said.

 

 

 

 

The protest was

crushed less than two weeks after it began

 

 

 

The uprising started in Budapest on 23 October 1956, with a spontaneous

demonstration by a crowd of about 23,000, the reading of a pro-democracy

manifesto and the singing of banned national songs.

A giant statue of Stalin was pulled down, leaving only the

dictator's boots on the pedestal.

Soviet tanks were forced to withdraw, but returned with

devastating force a week later.

Imre Nagy, the reforming prime minister, made a final

impassioned plea to the outside world by radio.

He and hundreds of others were arrested and executed, among

thousands of Hungarians who died.

The BBC's Allan Little says

the uprising was the moment the world accepted the post-war partition of Europe and the

apparent permanence of what Winston Churchill had called " the Iron

Curtain " .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6074138.stm

 

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Jorge Angelino

 

 

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Perpétua Azeitonense, 29

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