Official report apportions blame evenly for Budapest riots

The 192-page document compiled by a committee of nine on the street riots in Budapest last September and October finds all players in the Hungarian political scene at fault, a 14-page summary obtained by index.hu reveals.

The committee, chaired by Katalin Gönczöl, was set up on November 6, 2006 to investigate the events. The current report was approved unanimously, but individual members retained the right to add dissenting or parallel opinion to certain sections.

"All participants in the current domestic political scene are responsible for the development of the situation and the events that took place, although not to an equal degree," the report states. Among the causes leading to violent clashes between police and demonstrators, it lists recent injuries at both national and family levels that have not yet healed; fear provoked by the government's new policies and the miscommunication of this policy; the intention of the opposition to bring down and replace the government; the leaking of a speech by Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány in a Balatonöszöd cabinet session; and the use of the 50th anniversary of Hungary's 1956 uprising for political purposes. Radical far right groups used the latter two to start acts of physical violence, the report said.

So, who's to blame? According to the report, the prime minister initially underestimated the potential effects of his leaked speech, failed to realize the threat of a political crisis and did not react appropriately. Attempts by the President of the Republic to resolve the conflict, which mainly focused on the moral crisis aspect, were imbalanced and beyond the call of his duty, and also had the effect of evoking false expectations, the report found. The committee also criticized the referendum put forward by main opposition party Fidesz as it could seriously destabilize the constitutional order.

The report also found that the Budapest Police (BRFK) acted illegally in accepting announcements for an assembly to last several months on Kossuth tér and then committed another mistake when it did not disperse the demonstration after the time window expired. "The BRFK also infringed the law when it labeled the demonstrations in Kossuth tér first campaign meetings and then cultural events when the campaign embargo took effect. Budapest police chief Péter Gergényi and his deputy were further criticized because they did not act in a professional manner during the siege on public television headquarters on September 18. The fact that many police officers wore no badges and some of them were wearing ski masks also goes against the law, the report said.

Fidesz is responsible for holding its October 23 commemoration at Astoria, one of the busiest intersections in the capital. Police made a mistake in approving the announced location, disregarding the experience of earlier demonstrations, parallel events throughout the city and the need to move some 50 foreign delegates around the city, the report states.

The committee found that far right groups that had earlier operated in isolation managed to create a nationwide network by October 23 and established connections with various political and social organizations. Available evidence suggests that the mixing of peaceful citizens and violent lawbreakers was no coincidence and it all took place according to some plan, the report said.

Both the size and the hostile nature of the groups of armed demonstrators on October 23 justified police numbers and the force employed against them, the committee found. However, several officers went beyond the boundaries of legally usable force and committed acts of violence against people already rendered incapable of aggression or resistance.

The events during the August 20 fireworks and in the September-October period all indicate that police and disaster control authorities are unprepared for handling crisis situations when massive crowds are involved.

The committee has made several proposals to prevent a recurrence of similar situations in the future:

- The government's education policy should lay emphasis on exploring the idea of nations and the current structure of society.

- The government should exclude from its communication certain elements that increase social uncertainty and should not make the impression that its reform plans are improvised.

- The government should lay emphasis on informing the population in a clear and unambiguous manner and should draft a communication plan.

- The government should draft amendments to the law on assembly, limiting demonstrations to 24 hours but not requiring special permits to erect a stage and use audiovisual systems.

- The committee also proposes drafting of a new constitution.

- A new law should be made on employing troops for crowd dispersal, with a special focus on the methods and tools allowed. The police law should require all officers to observe the rules of rubber bullet weapons.

- The National Police (ORFK) should make information available on the legal instruments of coercion used, the methods used when calling for the dispersal of a crowd and the legal consequences of behavior not in line with the rules of peaceful gathering.

- The ORFK should take steps to ensure that all officers on duty are identifiable.

- Only specially trained police forces should be deployed for such tasks.

The committee did not suggest pardoning people arrested during the riots.

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