against the government of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, a former communist, who has admitted to lying about the economy to win re-election.
The largest demonstration, organized by supporters of Hungary’s largest rightist opposition party Fidesz, saw up to 50,000 people carrying torches and candles for a march that began at the House of Terror, a former headquarters of the communist secret police, which has been converted into a museum, to Astoria Square in another part of downtown.
Organizers said the march was meant to remember those suffering because of police violence, which was used October 23 against anti-government protestors, injuring nearly 170 people.
Saturday’s demonstration came as Gyurcsany, a former leader of the Communist youth movement here, and his allies attended official ceremonies, including one honoring a persecuted Catholic Church leader and a prime minister.
In Parliament, plaques were unveiled in honor of late Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, head of the Hungarian Catholic Church during the 1956 revolt, and Imre Nagy, the prime minister at the time of the revolution who was later executed. Mindszenty was forced to hide for 15 years in the US embassy to avoid prosecution for his role in the revolt. In 1971, he was was finally allowed by the communist government to leave the country.
FORMER STUDIO
The plaques honoring these men were reportedly placed outside the room which had been turned into a radio studio on October 30 in 1956 and where Nagy on November 1 declared Hungary an independent state. Demonstrators have said however they believe the ideals of the revolution have not been realized, pointing to Gyurscany’s background.
But in an interview with BosNewsLife, one of the world’s leading dissidents, Harry Wu, disagreed. He warned Hungarians rallying against the government not to confuse their actions with the 1956 Revolution against Soviet rule.
He knows the events well: Wu’s condemnation of the Soviet invasion crushing the revolt was the main reason for his detention, when he was still a young student. He had to abandon his girlfriend and family. Nineteen long years of hard work, starvation and often torture followed. It nearly killed him.
China was a close ally of the Soviet Union and Wu’s comments were seen as betraying the nation. Wu, 69, told BosNewsLife he believes Hungarians are looking for a scapegoat to blame for the country’s economic difficulties. "I think the people are looking for more freedom and democracy and an end of corruption," he said, referring to Prime Minister Gyurcsany’s admittance that he lied to voters at a close party meeting. A tape recording of the speech was later leaked to media.
DIFFERENT ERA
"But today the prime minister doing something wrong is completely different than the era when people were completely controlled," Wu cautioned. It is also different than the situation in China where he believes the Communist Party has about 67-million members and rules the nation as a dictatorship.
All Wu received as an appreciation for his suffering from Hungary’s authorities was an honorary citizenship in 1996 from than president Arpad Goncz and a key of Budapest. He isn’t complaining. "I did something very small for Hungary, but I was told I spent longer time in a Chinese prison camp," than many Hungarians in Soviet camps, he said.
The Hungarian Revolution broke out October 23, 1956 and ended with the incasion of Soviet forces on November 4, sealing the country’s fate as a satellite-state of Moscow until the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989.
The suppression of the two-week rebellion resulted in the deaths of some 2,800 Hungarians. A further 12,000 were wounded and 200,000 fled to the West, according to estimates. (With BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos reporting from Budapest).
