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Uprising in Hungary: an update
thedesignerguy - 21.09.2006 18:17
REVOLUTION 64k intro
The turmoil in Hungary is by no means over yet. International media are reporting less every day about the protests, and when they do they emphasise the violence that occurs. In reality the protests are increasing in numbers every day, as is the repression and desinformation.
Protests at Multiple Locations
There has been an ongoing peaceful protest every day since Sept.17th at Kossuth square, in front of the Parliament. Ever since the 18th., in over 30 other cities solidarity protests are continuing every day, mostly massing in the thousands. So far all these protests have been completely peaceful.
The violent protests and some riots which you see in the international media recur every night:
-Sept.18 riots broke out at the public broadcast TV building.
-Sept.19 at multiple locations At first a group of protesters attempted to close on the governing coalition's major party's HQ, but could not get there because of police barricades. Then more violent protests started at multiple locations, with some damage to public and private property at Ferenc boulevard, Blaha square, Felvonulasi Terseg ('Avenue of Marching Workers' in the old days).
-Sept.20 At multiple locations clashes occured with riot police: Blaha square, Oktogon square, Nyugati train station, A Terror Haza ('House of Terror', which housed the WWII german-collaborating secret police, then after WWII the same building housed the Soviet-allied secret police)
According to a few hazy media reports, the damage to public and private property on the Tuesday evening events was less than damage at the TV building the previous evening.
Limiting Civil Rights and Media Liberties
Blocking Cellular Phone Networks to Stop Self-organisation.
To make communication between rioters more difficult, police is planning to block cellular networks at "sensitive areas", according to Magyar Hirlap(Hungarian Post).
 http://index.hu/politika/belfold/tuntet0917/
"Not protest, but mere criminal activity"
Laszlo Solyom, Minister of the Republic, announced in his Tusday speech that the events happening on Monday night are falling out of the definition of political protest, and are in fact crimes to be punished according to common law. Then he officially mentioned that "protesters who are passively watching the violent activities, as well as protesters who watch passively but in agreement with the perpetrators, are sharing the responsibility".
The whole speech, including the above statement, is officially available at the KEH (Office of the Ministry of Republic) site:
http://www.keh.hu/keh/20060919nyilatkozat.html
Curfew Warning
According to Jozsef Petretei, Minister of Justice and Law Enforcement, "we should consider about enacting a curfew, or using certain other methods, to stop the nightly attrocities from recurring". Later he made an extra public statement and emphasized that enacting a curfew was just mentioned as a theoretical possibility.
http://www.hirtv.hu/?tPath=/belfold/&article_hid=116232
http://www.indymedia.hu/cikk.shtml?x=32060
First Arrests and Illegal Police Procedure.
On the 19th agents from national security and police visited some identified persons, generally "most dangerous elements" and "leader types", and carried away people. Following is one of the few examples that make it to the outside world:
NBH(National Security Office) agents forced open the door of computer scene member and radical blogger Tomcat\MWI, and carried him away from his home on the early evening of 19th. According to his girlfriend the agents had no valid search warrant or even an arrest warrant, so they took him away by "placing him under custody because of suspicion of involvement". She also had to visit the police and make her statement. Tomcat is currently held there in custody, that can last up to 72 hours, until they decide further procedures. According to his girlfriend he was denied the standard procedure of contacting his lawyer, and when the lawyer got word about it from the girlfriend and visited the place of custody, he was not allowed to enter and visit his client.
Posted in today's blog entry by Tomcat's girlfriend here:
http://blog.tomcatpolo.hu/index.html?loadpage=http://blog.tomcatpolo.hu/blog/blog/maiblog.html
WEDNESDAY evening events
Some translated fresh news bits from two major TV/news portals, and thematically sorted:
Arrests.
"So far 137 people were arrested, under suspicion of participation in Monday-Tuesday events."
http://www.hirtv.hu/?tPath=/belfold/&article_hid=116275
The Police.
"According to our correspondent, two young kids were mock-fighting for fun in front of two of their friends, at Astoria square. Then some police were jumping them from a police van prowling nearby, beat up all four kids and took them away."
http://index.hu/politika/belfold/tuntet0917/
"A group of 6-8 young kids, at first sight apparently non-rioting types, were beaten up by the police with overt violence on Akacfa street, in the section between Wesselenyi and Dob streets.
One victim had three of his teeth broken from his mouth and several are still lying helplessly on the ground, our correspondent was calling the ambulance to pick them up. The victims claim they don't know any palpable reason why they were attacked by the Police."
http://index.hu/politika/belfold/tuntet0917/
A protester was shot in the stomach at point-blank range with a CS gas rifle grenade by Police at Oktogon square.
http://index.hu/politika/belfold/tuntet0917/
"Police arrested a big butch bald guy after finding a knife with blade length over 8cm on his person, according to our correspondent at the events."
http://index.hu/politika/belfold/tuntet0917/
Whereas during the day everything appears to be peaceful in the streets of Budapest, during the evening riot- and normal police are massively, acting very aggressive and provocative to everyone. Not only during the riots, but also when nothing threatening was at hand. They were at random interrogating people, calling them names and being very aggressive again. During some incidents on wednesday evening, the police is seen to have been throwing all kinds of projectiles at protesters.
The Protesters.
"Sólyomhoz fordulnak a tüntetők"
"Protesters at Kossuth square, in front of the Parliament accepted by common vouching to send a delegation to Laszlo Solyom, Minister of the Republic. The delegation will include, according to them, Maria Wittner, Laszlo Toroczkai, Lorant Hegedus jr., Andras Takacs and Laszlo Gonda. Andras Takacs informed us that they proposed a Thursday meeting at the Minister of Republic. They intend to meet specifically him is because 'he has considerable influence on inland politics, and has the political tools at hand to make the current governing coalition leave office'."
http://index.hu/politika/belfold/tuntet0917/
Even though Lorant Hegedus jr. and Laszlo Toroczkai are extreme rightists, it is again important to notice that the uprising as a whole is NOT led by the extreme-right.
Maria Wittner is a public hero of the 1956 Revolution, she was awarded the 'Magyar Köztársasági Érdemrend Nagykeresztje'(Grand Cross of the Hungarian Republic Award) by the Minister of Republic a few years ago. She is an outspoken opponent of MSZMP, the old Soviet allied regime's political party, and of current governing coalition majority partner MSZP, the legal political successor of MSZMP.
Students organising.
On wednesday the universities were completely shut down, all classes were withheld, and nobody was allowed to enter. This as reaction to the plans of the student organisations HOOK and Hallgatoi Halozat to organise a meeting at the auditorium. Classes continued again as 'normal' on thursday, but the student organisations are forbidden to undertake any activities on university ground.
Thursday afternoon, Hallgatoi Halozat started an extensive schedule of open discussions and performances, under the title "Kept out, but staying open". (HOOK is the general student organisation, Hallgatoi Halozat is the autonomous/anarchist student organisation)
Videos about Wednesday evening
http://www.hirtv.hu/?tPath=/belfold/&article_hid=116237
[click links under the title 'Videok']
Events in Pictures
http://index.hu/politika/belfold/2006/elkurtuk/galeriak/
For more background information on the complex political situation:
http://www.indymedia.hu/cikk.shtml?x=32081
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/23/23409/1.html
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| Read more about: europa vrijheid, repressie & mensenrechten | | supplements | | student organisations | fier - 21.09.2006 20:20
Hallgatoi Halozat (the anarchist student organisation) is still holding its event now. One of the big debates over the last few days was about dealing with corporate media. As stated before, a lot of media are collaborating with the government in the sense that protesters are described as 'stone-throwing hooliganist looters'. The fear is that this image will only be stronger for the anarchist movement.
Meanwhile provocators are desperately trying to help events in the disadvantage of the students. One (possibly extreme-right) person calling himself "fradisziv" ("hooligan-heart") earlier today threatened to disturb the student's happening today by starting a riot with the nearby police.
The fear of nazi or government provocators is also big in respect for coming saturday, when the national commemoration of the 1956 revolution will take place in Budapest.
Apparantly the main opposition party FIDESZ is so afraid of provocations that today it officially backed down from participating in the commemoration. The government and main media in Hungary already accused FIDESZ for being responsible for the events of the last few days.
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