I have just sent this (below) to my English friends.
thanks for reading and helping!

Zoli
---
Currently there is no violence in the streets, but the accumulated pieces of facts from Monday are more than shocking. As I told Ron yesterday, i asked a teacher friend to translate what he sent me! He is working during the day, I guess he will send it later in the evening, when he has time.
Anyway, it 's about his best friend who was alone in a street, wanted to go home, when policemen attacked him without any warning, and shot rubber bullets at him, one knocking out one of his eyes. He was brutally beaten too. He was not violent or such, was quite peaceful, actually shocked from the very first attack by thepolice. he is in hospital, he has 5 children at home, one is a baby.

I expect my student to come by 5.30pm,then i teach till about 7pm. and then I will practise (rehearse ) for my tomorrow evening solo concert (40 minutes, my singing and with my guitar) at Feszek muveszklub, a popular club of Budapest, not far from the Boulevard.

news:

1. Fidesz and KDNP wanted to call for the meeting of related parliement committees for yesterday (suggested on Tuesday) to investigate what happened on Monday.Government parties didn't even go to the meeting, then police leaders left the room smiling. Police and Gyurcsany say the police actions were adequate, right, and fair. Police leader Gergenyi says police didn't beat anyone!!

recordings, pictures, witnesses totally contradict that, evidence of brutality and provocation from police side happened.
It is evident police could have chased the violent people from Nyugati to the inside of the city, up to Astoria onto the peaceful Fidesz commemorators. There were other ways, forcing them out towards Vaci road, but the police didn't want that. The other way could have been easy, to Vaci road, which opens right from Nyugati, so in that direction, and not towards to the downtown. More than strange! That thing speaks for itself! The police(or others in high position) wanted provokators, angry people to mix with peaceful ones, who were at commemoration events. The police provoked passers by, and gradually forced them along the way to Astoria from nyugati to be in the company of some violent gangs, amd thus considering them as 'unified' crowd. This purpose was also clear from the way

2. Just like the poor friend of my teacher colleague,
there are really many cases with strange police brutality.
A priest in his priest robe was beaten near Astoria, after the Fidesz commemoration event was over. he was in the middle of a street, alone in that area, with his Hungarian flag, and several policemen were running towards him and passing him they beat him with their rubber bars, they passed him, and later he was taken behind a police cordon(barrier) where police beat him again, and jumped several times on his Hungarian flag. He was let out of that situation only later. I guess, a priest in his speacial priest robe in the middle of a street is well visible, and nobody would expect a peaceful priest to be a gangster or violent or such.Or any priest any time. (Except the strange Hungarian police on Monday!).

3. There are eye witnesses who were in the windows up in blocks of flats (as I remember from the news on tv, from a side street near astoria) seeing that 8-10 policemen left the others, changed into strange clothes, like those used by the violent protesters in first rows of crowds facing police, and mixed , disappeared in crowds. They can be considered provocators.

4. Several news agency men were also beaten(from Poland, as I remember bits of news of that, also heard someone from France).
5. An american citizen was also beaten in the street, he was not violent, and was not in a group or a crowd. He was showing up his passport , and also spoke in English saying that, but he was beaten. A dweller of the house outside which it happened saved him, pulling the lying, bloody man into the doorway. A restaurant with foreign people was also attacked by the police, and I have mentione in another email that cellar restaurant where old age women and women, children escaped from the violence, and police threw much tear gas after them, down the cellar restaurant.They couldn't escape elsewhere , they were crying and shocked.

6. Policemen attacked someone lying with wounds anon emergency bed, and beat him, not having mercy on the ambulance men carrying him either.

7. A Fidesz (opposition party) parliament member, Revesz Mariusz was beaten by the police, despite showing up his MP card wantinmg to get pieces of info about the strange behaviour and business of the police at astoria, right after the peaceful Fidesz commemoration event. He was taken to hospital, and despite the evidence, police refuswed to investigate his case. police are not investigating any of the cases of the 'victims'. police leaders say police didn't beat anyone, and police was right. Gyurcsany strongly supports the police actions as beign fair.

Noone would like violence, but the main cause of tension is still in power - Gyurcsany. He always says that politics should be in the parliament and not in the street, ignoring people's basic right to protest peacefully against his lies and the government. It's ironic that up till now,the government, MSZP and SZDSZ permanently have ignored any proposal from the opposition, and continue that. The question is, when there is no dialogue because of that in the parliament, because of the extreme arrogance and despise by the government, MSZP ,.SZDSZ, especially prime minister Gyurcsany towards the opposition, what can come next.

Considering that the higher bills, becuase of the false economic 'policy' of the government in the past 4 years (as Gyurcsany said, they didn't do anything), more accumulated tension will join. Those who formerly supported Gyurcsany abroad should see that, and for the sake of peace, should revise their support to him. He doesn't deserve that at all.
There are things which are not about party groups, common party labels and such. More important is the content behind.
only that and the real values, moral issues should count!!

Zoli

forwarding what I sent to my friends.
Zoli
---
Yesterday evening a former university coursemate forwarded a weblink, where there is a good quality private video recording of a police terror when on Monday(October 23) a crowd of policeman attack a peaceful man in vaci street, chasing him, and beating him, and shouting 'kill him, kill him' ('Old meg, Old meg' -in Hungarian). One of the many recordings and evidence! As I know, the video recording was made by a familiar of his. Anyway, Vaci street leads to the pest head of Elizabeth bridge, where one barricade was made by protesters on the evening of October 23, 2006.The video link is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNsib28r43g

Another shocking thing is that neither HirTV, nor Polish public tv was allowed to make an interview with the beaten priest, in a public place, in the street, two, three days ago.
The police wanted the documents of the journalists, and seemed determined to force them out of the place if they didn't give up the interview. Also, the policemen present thretened by a court case (suing the journalist ) if they didn't leave the area. Also, the policemen didn't identify themselves.

Anyway, it is evident now, similarly to the September police brutality, none of the policemen involved in creating terror, and acting brutally with peaceful passers-by, people, was wearing their badges of identification number. This is illegal, and against constitution policy. It turned out that in September the police leader, by his own decision, simply changed the existing rules, and allowed policemen to act that way, without identification number.

Today, Magyar Nemzet paper got a document , which is a letter by the Prime Minister's (Gyurcsany) Office, sent to Hungarian ambassadors abroad, calling for how to act, how to interpret the October 23, 2006 happenings abroad to meadi, and public people- according to the principles in that letter. That is: our ambassadors are asked formally by the prime minister's office to spread abroad that the October 23 ,2006 violent happenings were because of the opposition, and that they should start a smear campaign against Fidesz leader (opposition party) Orban Viktor , explain that info to foreign media, to make the situation be seen that way. This is a break with the policy of any Hungarian government after the changes in 1990. They call their attention to using an article for that purpose by a highly government (MSZP -SZDSZ) biased paper, Elet es Irodalom.
It seems a before 1990 policy is getting back, when everything was told from the top, when everything was controlled.

One of my familiars' 76 year old grandfather lives on Bajcsy Zsilinszky road- not far from Nyugati- and he was kicked by the horse of a policeman when he peacefully tried to get to his home.
The police are documenting every visitor of the poor victims of terror in hospital, and make them identify themselves, record their personal data. It's also illegal, but the police don't seem to see it that way.

One thing is sure, it seems the police want to discourage people, unions and such, from going to the street to protest agaisnt Gyurcsany and the government in any way about their deeds.

Zoli
ps. my concert yesterday came out quite well, was very successful!

On Tuesday evening finally there was a 'certain' examination in a parliament committee about the October 23, 2006 happenings, but despite the opposition wanting that to be open to anyone, that is available to the public and media, the government parties with their majority voted for a closed procedure, and thus everything had to be behind closed doors, excluding the media and people. Even before the committee examination was declared 'closed' with governmental majority, the infamous (the no-consequence man of August 20 tornado scandal) Szilvasy Gyorgy, state secretary of the prime minister's office, said he had 'proofs' about that it was not the police that forced the violent crowd from Deak square onto the peaceful Fidesz commemorators at Astoria. What is more ,he suspected Fidesz of having some links with the Deak square protesters,but didn't say anything of that, and even couldn't come up with any proof of that at the closed meeting afterwards - Fidesz respresentatives present said to the press.
The strangest thing was that the government declared the meeting's content and documents of state importance, and thus, put everything under an 80 year state secrecy period, so noone can access any documents of that.
Fidesz is demanding all the documents to be made public, so that everyone could have insight to the documents . As nothing should be hidden,and Fidesz doesn't have anything to hide. MSZP, however seems to have something to hide, especially with the strange and sudden 80 year old secrecy period. Yesterday the government parties put certain selected pieces of documents on a website,
In the meantime, there is no news about the government (MSZP_SZDSZ) examining the real facts, that is, the police terror on October 23, 2006.

The facts: Police , at the police stations, used threat that they would 'make' the 'suspected' stay longer 'in', making several people there 'forget' about the wound harms that police did to them, by signing a document about that, in which they had to admit they were not wounded or hurt by the police, and that they committed some crime. Some of them now are considering suing the police.
Revesz Mariusz , beaten Fidesz (opposition) parliament representative sued Bene and Gergenyi police top leaders, as the police have been doing nothing else but passing the buck, and still saying everything was brave and lawful from the part of police action on October 23. As the media pictures, private video and photos could show, this is not true at all. On the contrary!! Since today, there are over 500 reports made to Fidesz office, set up for people who suffered police terror on October 23. It also means legal advisory, help. As many people seem to be too afraid to tell the harm police did to them (for fear of further violence from police side), so far 'just' 40 cases were reported officially to the Supreme Court. (not the police, as it doesn't seem to make any sense...).

Also, the private video l that i sent the other day, is evidence of something more, as you yourselves can see!! There one peaceful ,standing man is attacked with weapons (eg.rubber bars)by a group of policeman, without any warning. After beating him (and shouting 'kill him'), they leave him behind. Quite shocking!! The question is if the government and police leaders consider everything 'normal', lawaful, and brave from the action of the police , then citizens must be quite careful seeing a group of policeman approaching people. You must be prepared to protect yourself, because they may try to commit something. That is crime! The criminal police, perhaps that's the name from now on we should call those gangsters. Of course not all of them are like that, but you never know when they attack! Protect yourself from these criminals!

There is one very interesting thing : the government parties, MSZP-SZDSZ always refer to as if the happenings last Monday were pre-organized by certain groups, and the fact that the tank was started...
I must add that the Lord Mayor, Demszky, whose responsibility belongs to that field too,that is the exhibition where the tank was! I wonder who left certain amount of petrol in the tank, and why... It touches the SZDSZ Lord Mayor's responsibility- he is the one who always wants to protect Budapest from extreme groups (I mean 'right wing' extreme groups...).
Demszky is an SZDSZ member, and was MSZP-SZDSZ common candidate for the recent local government election.
I wonder whose interests are these things. Not the opposition, that is a sure thing.

Just like former Prime minister Horn Gyula (1994-98) some days before October 23, Hegyi Gyula, socialist Europa Parliament member made a strange statement about October 23, 1956, whose 50 th anniversary is now. He wrote an article for Guardian, published on October 25. There he said 1956 was not a revolution, and used the word 'uprising' extensively in his writing, saying that in 1956 there were those extreme right wingers, nazi like groups who were anti-semitic, and who are protesting now.
In the same paper, that is the Guardian, English historian Mark Pittaway reacted to the extreme article by Hegyi Gyula, calling attention to the facts, and rejected the socialist representative's ideas, pointing out that Hegyi ignores historical facts. Since then, Hegyi Gyula was given an informal (slight) 'criticism' by his own party(MSZP) too.

November 4 is the day when the invited soviet tanks started putting down the revolution in 1956, and though several local fights lasted for over 1 month, it was a sinister sign.

Tomorrow is november 4, and Fidesz organized a peaceful walk with torch against violence and brutality, for peace, and giving support and solidarity to the victims of police terror last Monday. The walk will start from Terror Haza (House of Terror) on Andrassy road (the former headquarters of the infamous former Hungarian Nazi party in 1944-45 and Communist secret police, AVH during communist times)
The peaceful march will go to Astoria. Fidesz asked people not to take any flags, transparents, just walk in silence and take a torch. Everybody is invited, without party preference.

Zoli

dear All,

Yesterday, despite the rainy weather condition, there were over 150 thousand people with torch in the Fidesz organized peaceful walk along Andrassy road to Astoria commemorating November 4,1956, the sad end of the revolution, and against violence and police terror and brutality on October 23, 2006, and also providing support and solidarity to the victims, and that people cannot be made intimidated by terror. This time Fidesz's own activists provided the security for the crowd along the road. Everything was peaceful, there was no news of violence. Several thousand policemen were on the streets of Budapest, watching different demonstrations (about 30). At Deak square, another crowd of about 500 hundred demonstrators with flags from the nearby Szabadsag ter wanted to join Fidesz walk, but the Fidesz organizers easily managed to separate them from the walkers with torch, and no incident happened. The mentioned crowd of 500 with Arpad flags later went along streets of Budapest,loudly demanding Gyurcsany to leave. Finally they wanted to join another demonstration on Vorosmarty square, but there their number severely dropped ,-to around 50- as many of them had gone home.

However, there was a strange thing from police side yesterday. Despite the police leaders promising some days ago that all policemen must wear their identification number, as cameras showed, the majority of them were not wearing any identification number, so in case of any incident...again, they couldn't be identified.

Many proofs have accumulated from the strange and brutal police actions from back in September and October 23.

There is a photo where a policeman near Astoria is putting a demonstrator's t-shirt on (so the policeman there was a provocator).
A tank expert said and showed that the exhibition tank used on October 23 was very easy to start, as those models were secured the way that they didn't need batteries, and anyone using the tank's special built in air compressor could start it - with that, a tank like that can be started about 9 times, and anyone with some background knowledge how to drive a tractor probably could easily manage directing that tank.

There are moving picture recordings of tv channels from both September 18, at the television headquarters siege, and on October 23, where a certain journalist is in a police helmet, and without that, talking to policemen and also with some members of a group which is thought to be responsible for starting provocation and violence. The journalist has been identified, and has been sacked so far from the current medium he worked for. He cannot be reached on the phone since his strange appearance at different places got to the press.
(among different media, he also worked for the government). There was a documentary of the events on HirTV in its Celpont -Target Point-program where some proofs were shown. Also in the mentioned program, some other interesting thing was shown. On October 23, in a car, there is someone sitting in a yellowish waistcoat, standardized for press people to wear at events like that. HirTV asked the man which medium he belonged to, but he first refected the answer, and when then said 'independent', HirTV journalist asked him why his car has a TV2 sticker on, to which his answer was that he had worked there till the previous day. TV2 is commonly known as government biased commercial tv channel.He on the spot, was behaving very strangely.

Maybe the most surprising thing is that people saw some of the violent protesters on October 23, wearing special mask and scarf, near Deak square, and having a friendly chat with policemen who didn't even seem to be wanting to identify them. Later these tried to give some molotov cocktails to people, trying to call them to fight with police. Also, as witnesses could see in some cases, some of them were wearing bullet -proof equipment, under their protester's clothes.

Also, top police leader Bene told at the committee meeting I referred to earlier that policemen's interaction on their radio
was recorded, and two protesters and those prove that it was the violent crowd which wanted to go in the direction of the peaceful Fidesz commemoration on October 23, and not the police pushed them there. As tv recordings clearly show, police simply obstacled, blocked the way of that violent crowd going in the way of Lanchid, or another free way, thus simply chased the violent protesters on the Fidesz commemoration. It's also strange that the recorded radio speech of those policemen are too elaborate..., somehow doesn't fit the dramatic situation there. At least you long for getting to know when the voice recordings were made... There must be someone who knows.

Zoli
ps: sorry for the typing etc.mistakes. Many times I don't have time to reread.

The recent happenings:

Justice minister, Petretei sent a letter to the leader of Supreme Court, Lomniczi, whose content was leaked.
the general reception of the news was that, the minister was trying to press for biased future decisions. It cannot be accepted!

Police don't intend, despite general demand, to make the content of public camera recordings on streets and squares of October 23 be public. It's against law. They could be also used to help about the happenings on October 23, 2006.

Two blind people, a married couple, Guba Janos and his wife were attacked by the police on October 23, beat them, and only when they recognized they were blind, took handcuffs off them, and let them go by leaving them on the bank of the Danube,( between Margareth bridge and the Parliament) at night. They heard one policeman saying: 'These should be shot into the Danube'.

As available recordings show, on October 23 police obstacled the way of the protesting crowd at Deak square in two ways, thus actually chasing them on the peaceful commemoration at Astoria.

Gergenyi, Budapest police leader, on the first days rejected resigning, and said everything was lawful, brave and fair from the police on October 23. Now, unexpectly, on Wednesday, he asked for his retirement from minister Petretei from the end of December, 2006. Strangely, many Budapest district police leaders involved in the October 23 happenings, asked for the same. The general public think these are in connection with the police brutality and false steps.

While Petretei and the government parties, especially SZDSZ- the (pseudo) liberals- want Gergenyi to stay in office. SZDSZ party president, Kuncze Gabor, and SZDSZ Budapest lord mayor Demszky think Gergenyi's work has been remarkable, as Budapest police leader. This view is more than shocking, i guess, there is no need to explain what liberalism means to these pseudo liberal party people!
What was more, Kuncze started joking with the name of the police beaten Fidesz parliament representative, Revesz Mariusz, calling him 'Revesz Martiriusz' (making reference to 'martyr' ). Fortunately, some SZDSZ circle intellectuals, including Fodor Gabor ,SZDSZ parliament representative, said Kuncze's joking words were unacceptable, criticized him, and saying SZDSZ should rather focus on investigating the happenings on October 23.

SZDSZ Lord Mayor Demszky, some days after the October 23 happenings , within 1 day had special sign posts made for a lot of money, fearing that the holders would come to Budapest in their tractors and big agriculture vehicles. What he did is the next: he placed all these in the streets of Budapest, and thus rewriting traffic rules, preventing them from entering Budapest ('no entry' sign) . (last year, there were hundreds of these vehicles in front of the parliament, protesting against the ministry of agriculture's decisions( making their life much worse).
An entertainer in his program dared to tell a joke of Demszky's strange decision, showing up some specially designed 'no entry' signs, - one saying 'agressive pensioners'- referrring to pedestrians.

On November 4 there were no fights, and somehow it showed that if police don't 'interfere', there is no trouble, violence, many people think.

police spokesman said that on the past focussed days
there were 27 thousand policeman on the streets of Budapest in service. (they were given special 2 and a half milliard HUF pack, from the state budget, upon Gyurcsany's
order.


best wishes,
Zoli

yesterday neither justice minister Petretei, nor prime minister Gyurcsany signed the retirement request by Budapest police head, Gergenyi.So Gergenyi stays... SZDSZ Lord Mayor of Budapest, Demszky Gabor welcomed the decision, just like Kuncze, SZDSZ party president. the party in name is 'liberal', in practice it cannot be seen - many think and feel. Many think Gyurcsany with the decision is taking responsibility...

Just like some SZDSZ circle intellectuals, SZDSZ's European Parliament representative and their fraction leader there, Szent-Ivanyi Istvan gave a serious criticism to his party leaders and its disturbing practice , expressing his 'real worries' about SZDSZ, the party, as I heard in the news today.

Szent-Ivanyi Istvan is an honest man, who ,so far, many times has shown his fair stand in different issues and rights he believes in.
Unlike the (pseudo-liberal) mainstream of his party, Szent-Ivanyi Istvan seems to still stand in the true field of traditional liberalism.
He deserves much respect for standing up for that!!

best wishes,
Zoli

news:

as the government has set up only one investigation body of its own(Gonczol- committee), examining the past weeks violence, two alternative independent investigation groups have started investigating the past weeks' violence in Budapest in their own ways.

these two independent groups say that any investigation group must be a civilian one, which, unlike the government one , is able to judge things without government bias, and also, which looks at and investigates the harm done to peaceful citizens, as the government one and the police don't seem to be interested in looking at the other side of the coin (the victims).
the two groups :
1. a group of lawyers, including ones specialized in criminal law - some witnessed the police brutality cases themselves.

2. Amnesty International

both groups also criticize that the September MTV building siege report (still secret, but there is 'gossip' noone is named to take the blame) was made by people in the service of the government, thus being biased, and now even Gergenyi, Budapest police head, who was one of the main people responsible, has been asked to finalize the report... So people are making reports who ,actually , should be blamed in the first place. Very old , strange method, which was very common in communist times...
We are in 2006, and I don't know what to call this 'system'.
And, about the August 20 tornado disaster, where the government was also responsible, the recently published report of August 20 disaster doesn't mention anyone responsible, just describes the situation,( just like the government set up committee is supposed to act, as they told, about the recent happenings. So noone is responsible ...and everything is normal...). Szilvasy Gyorgy, state secretary of the prime minister's office, was asked to lead the investigation about august 20 happenings, where he was the first to be blamed. So, someone who was to be blamed investigated himself and his fellows...
That's the thing where the word biased behaviour is a common phenomenon (these people are used to that from times before 1989, when practice was like that).

someone who made a mistake shouldn't be asked officially to examine and make an official report of his own 'mistakes'. Amnesty and the other mentioned independent group of lawyers have set up their investigations greatly due to that strange governmental biased behaviour.
Their criticism is well understandable.
Anyway, SZDSZ Lord Mayor of Budapest, Demszky intends to award Gergenyi tomorrow, i hear. (No more comment is necessary about the pseudo liberal guy, i guess).

---

The commemoration series to remember the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian revolution in 1956 has officially ended abroad. The last stage was held in England, at St.James palace where there was a wide range of programs.The event was organized by the London Hungarian Culture Centre. There were performers, like our famous folk singer, Sebestyen Marta. Prince Charles gave a commemoration speech, and as a surprise, Jeremy Irons recited a poem by Marai Sandor (Mike Visceglia will like the news, - he is an admitted admirer of Marai).
The event was also the official introduction of the published conversations in book with commemorators, whose life was changed by the 1956 revolution. Leader of the London Hungarian Culture Centre, Bogyay Katalin launched these adventureous talks in January under the name 'the Voice of Freedom', and now BBC provided these recordings for the mentioned book.

best wishes,
Zoli

those who are watching or listening to the news now can learn about the death of legendary football player of Hungary and Real Madrid, Puskas Ferenc, who passed away today ,at the age of 79.
He left communist Hungary in 1956, and played for real Madrid then. He is generally considered one of the greatest players.
He suffered from Alzheimer, and practically he died in poverty in a Budapest hospital.(the treatment cost a lot, he was in the hospital since 2000).
He died at 7 am this morning, the hospital announced.
Football fans in Hungary and all around the world are mourning him!

Zoli

Zoli,

Thanks for keeping us informed about the situation in Hungary. It sometimes sounds as though the 'bad old days' have come back, but I hope the situation gradually improves there for you.

The death of Puskas Ferenc, the famous Hungarian footballer, has been covered on both the BBC and other (eg Sky) news channels here today:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6155766.s tm

Chris

dear Chris,

It's really kind of you! Thanks!

around 11 am I was watching tv channels,(didn't teach that time) and then I switched from Hungarian channels to the BBC World (tv) , and to my great surprise, there the two headlines (only!) that time in some details were about Bush, and the death of Puskas (the normal headlines section by the presenter). It was quite unusual to see a Hungarian there that long, but really honourable, showed people and fans remember him!
I switched to CNN then, and he was there too. To tell the truth, when i changed different channels around that mentioned time, many times I could see only his wonderful goals on the screen.

Of course, later the news of his death was gradually moved to the sports section ,and other coming important news entered the headlines.
One of these was the news of the now official French socialist candiate,Segolene Royal. She seems quite sympathetic to me -she was one of the EU parliament socialist representatives who, unlike the majority of their members, criticised Hungarian prime minister Gyurcsany in EU parliament and said he should resign after the leaked infamous tape. She was also against the socialist fraction publishing that support document to Gyurcsany.
I wish the majority of the EU parliament socialist fraction would consider the issue as she did / does.(and thus reconsider that).


Today the pseudo liberal lord mayor guy, Demszky awarded infamous Budapest police head Gergenyi. He gave him two different kinds. It's really shameful, to say the least.
Also, prime minister guy Gyurcsany invited a retired police general, Vorosmarti Mihaly, into the government set up 'investigation' group as 'expert'. He was the top police leader under the communist -socialist leader of Hungary, Kadar Janos, in the bad old days.
Chris, I really hope things will get better somehow. The present things are not promising,they are worrying!

I have just seen the pics on BBC World about people in Budapest placing candles and flowers in front of the hospital building in the evening where Puskas died.

Zoli

Puskas' funeral day, December 9, has been declared as national mourning day. He will be buried at St.Stephen's Basilica in Budapest, according to Roman Catholic ceremony.

Today, I read a very interesting news from 50 years ago, which, that time was covered in world press as leading news, on front pages of New York Times, Daily News,and Daily Mirror and the news agencies, like Reuters, UPI and AP were spreading the news in the world. On November 18, 1956, for half an hour in the morning a huge Hungarian national flag was being blown in the wind in New York, on the Statue of Liberty, at the edge of its torch. At the statue's base in turn, with huge letters the next could be read :
'STOP GENOCIDE, SAVE HUNGARY'.

The whole thing was organized by a group of 15 Hungarian emigrants. Though their action was illegal, there was no legal case or such started against them.

(The Hungarian flag was 7 meters in lenght, and 3 meters in width).

Today I also read (internet) news about the beginning of Statue of Liberty (www.origo.hu). Its content is that, Hungarian origin press magnate, Pulitzer Jozsef, in his paper started a money raising campaign for the creation of the statue. Upon its effect, by 1885, there was enough money from donation to start building.

Zoli

dear All,

here is the 'latest' news:

at the beginning of the week, some details of the secret report by the Countrywide Police headquarters from the TV building siege (September 18) was made public. It points out the lack of proper police direction, and says that after some time 'the police leader at the scene became on-looker of the happenings' . Names are not mentioned, only Budapest polce head, gergenyi, who the report says, made mistakes, but these cannot be considered so serious that he should be made responsible. It also points out that the Countywide police Chief, Bene Laszlo was abroad, and his deputy didn't act properly, so the police leaders false steps led to the chaos.
A high rank police leader, Ignacz Istvan was the leders of the police investigation group making this report. Gergenyi thinks that though he is not made directly responsible by that, certain criticism it contains against him, is just because of Ignacz Istvan, as he probably was inspiring to take his (Gergenyi) position as Budapest police head.

The report mentions the policemen there using warning shots (into air) , but till yesterday police didn't admit these being original, real metal bullets, shot from real fireguns, (so not rubber bullets). The deputy of the contrywide police's spokesman told it to journalists (Nemeth Lajos). there were 28 shots of these on september 18 at the tv building.
The whole 'thing' was focussed and 'leaked 'when HirTV reporter on the infamous September evening at the tv building siege broadcast by HirTV showed some remains of some metal bullets on the scene.( Because of that, some weeks ago a court case was started against him by the police...).
It's quite strange to me that prime minister Gyurcsany refected some weeks ago that he (Gyurcsany) ordered the police what to do. I clearly remember seeing him on a commercial tv on September 18 in the evening saying that everything was under control from police side, and that he had given orders to the police. I'm sure these tv recordings are available somewhere (I don't have them) , as these words were made in front of big public. Maybe his non-proper orders caused the chaos, and the police leaders don't dare to admit what was behind the scenes. This possibility shouldn't be left out of consideration.
What we know is that the puclic part of the police report admits the police action was badly-organized and non-proper, but not that responsible.
This part of the report is just about the very first day of the happenings, which happened right after the infamous Gyurcsany tape was made public.
---
about the football legend Puskas:
Yesterday there was an official commemoration in Brussels.
Last week, on Saturday Real Madrid had a match against Santander where Real Madrid won (3:1). The club offered the victory to Puskas. Before the match there was a commemoration, and Real Madrid anthem was performed on cello by Laura Benitez to him. I read that Puskas , even before his death, had been chosen as the greatest football player of all times in the history of Real Madrid, -he was that popular there! On the list there are other very big names following him, like Di Stefano, Butragueno and Raul.

have a nice weekend.
best wishes,
Zoli

Today I read in Magyar Nemzet that United Nations' committee against torture (CAT) has published its latest report on the recent Budapest happenings. The brutal police actions against the demonstrators in September and October made the committee really worried, and has given severe warnings, criticism to the Hungarian government. They think it's unacceptable that policemen didn't wear identification number on their uniforms. It also criticises the 'practice' that none of the policemen has been punished, made 'that responsible', that they have remained free from the consequences.They warn the government to pay more attention to human rights of citizens. They call for zero tolerance on all levels of hierarhy at the police- those who have committed crime, must be punished.

Hoping this, together with all the other warnings and facts the police and the government are given by different organizations will finally help to 'encourage' the identifications at different levels.

It's good to see that there are several international organizations that have been monitoring and analysing the situation.

Big THANKS about keeping eyes open!

Zoli

Hi Everyone,

I know it's not that nice to tell a sad story on the last but one day of the year. but there's something very sad which was, under the turbulance of events back in October, which I didn't mention earlier.

On October 15, about a week before the October 23 violence happenings, and about a month after the leakage of the infamous Gyurcsany tape and the following first wave of accumulated tension in September, another drama happened, which , however, was not a political one, still shocked whole Hungary.
On October 15, Szogi Lajos, a 44 year old teacher was crossing a village ,Olaszliszka, in Hungary in his car with his two young daughters on the back seats. Suddenly, an 11 year old pedestrian Gypsy girl
somehow got in front of his car, and was hit. Fortunately, the gypsy girl, who, as I know, was not following the traffic rules, was not hurt seriously, just got some little bruises, and ran away from the side of the road where she had fallen. The drama started when , Szogi Lajos, the 44 year old teacher got out of the car to see, with the intention to help, what happened to the girl. There was a large crowd of gypsies around(Roma people) witnessing the whole thing, thinking the gypsy girl was hurt dead. 3 of the gypsy men around simply attacked Szogi Lajos, the Hungarian man, and started kicking and hitting him, while the crowd of gypsies around was watching the whole. Szogi Lajos got over 50 kicks and punches, and his two little daughters on the back seats of the car had to witness the beating of their father's to death, which happened within a few minutes. The horror was also withessed, without interfering, the big crowd of gypsies around,-some of them was even in the encouraging mood...

The horror was generally comdemned by all gypsy organizations in Hungary. The 3 commintters escaped, only a day or two later they gave up themselves to the police. Gypsy families went to a nearby small island, and the message in the media was that they told, they were afraid of skindheads would follow and find them for what the 3 did. It was not true, nobody, except the police, were looking for the 3 gypsy committers. After this shocking brutal killing of a Hungarian man by gypsies happened, 3 other strange past murders came to daylight in the press, and from the police, where Hungarian gypsies killed Hungarian men by force.

more than a month after the Olaszliszka violence and tragedy ,in the correction section of Guardian the next was published:

Corrections and clarifications
Guardian, Wednesday November 29 2006
We wrongly reported an incident in Hungary which we said involved a 44-year-old Roma man being beaten to death by a mob after running over an 11-year-old girl (Violence and persecution follow Europe's downtrodden minority across a continent, page 27, yesterday). In fact an ethnic Hungarian man was attacked by a mob and beaten to death after his car hit a Roma girl. It was (...)

---
so the 'mob' ( I hate using this word) was clearly a gypsy crowd, exclusively. If the 'original' article in Guardian 'followed' the 'theory' that gypsies in Olaszliszka were persecuted by extreme groups...Nothing like that happened. In fact, the opposite happened, -strange it may seem. Quite strange is that a big paper like Guardian, more than a month later didn't know the original 'story'...I wonder where they got the 'authentic' news...
We know that there are different kinds of violence present in the world, but it's quite unfair to try to present the world with the opposite of what actually happened...where truth is not unfolded properly...
Maybe a good thing should be for certain media to check the news they are 'presented with' from different sources, rather than starting going with a kind of 'idea thread'.

There might be an 'interest' in the future to unfold the real truth about the uses of certain Hungarian symbols, like the Arpad flag, which is, incorrectly, often referred to as some kind of extreme group symbol in Hungary(nazi like), so people in the world 'may' finally get to know that it has nothing to do with extreme ideas as it is. With the well visible Nyilas cross of 1944 Hungarian Nyilas party on that, of course, it would mean totally different. However, the ancient Arpad flag, simply as it is used at today demonstrations, simply has other meanings. I wonder if a paper like Guardian finally starts analysing its real history in details,to dissolve the clouds of misunderstanding and fear. It would be the general interest, rather than creating 'pictures of enemies'.

I have always been an optimist, and will look in the future, 2007, that way.

Zoli

hi everyone,

Infamous Gyurcsany Ferenc, the (temporary) prime minister of Hungary made a very rude, and untrue statement in a recent interview he gave to The Times. Part of his world infamous and notorious lying procedure again!

Running amok has been continued by Gyurcsany, now his topic in The Times was Fidesz , the biggest opposition party in Hungary. In the interview he called whole Fidesz party anti-semitic, which is of course another lie and not true, and hopefully Gyurcsany by now has managed to discredit himself enough in the international field too. He also said things are worrying because of the Arpad flag. Gyurcsany says his wife is jewish by origin,and that she feels worried. I guess people should be worried about the sly way the general 'anti-semitism' is introduced and presented by the Gyurcsany family!!
With that he and his wife are trying to redirect the outcry caused by his tyrannous policy in Hungary, both politically and economically! he has caged himself in his own lies, and can't tell a true word even to himself. Sobriety has been missing from him for a long time, and a politician should possess that to be able to draw sober conclusions.
It's really shameful that his wife's mother, being the relative of Apro Antal, the head of the infamous Hungarian secret police and forces, lived in the Szemlohegy Villa house in Budapest (Gyurcsany family home now), which was taken away by force from Jewish people by both the Nyilas (Hungarian nazi-like party) in 1944, and then the communists made it 'state owned', that is, took that free (private goes public) forcing out the Jewish dweller from there, and putting the head of secret police there, the generally feared Apro Antal , and turning it into his luxury home. I wonder what kind of anti-semitism that kind of relocation was...

Remember, the 'socialist' prime minister Gyurcsany is also the infamous guy who , over a year ago, called the whole Saudi-Arabian soccer team 'a group of terrorists', -and then didn't even feel the need to say sorry for that... Racism 'in a way',I guess.
I guess Gyurcsany and his circle must be sick paranoid, in one way, but I guess the more credible 'version' of their mental 'ability' is that they are deliberately trying to mislead, and make the public be worried with issues like anti-semitism, stamping anyone they choose, no matter who. By that they think they could distract attention from economic pain, and also, could try to create an enemy (Fidesz) which people should "defeat', and be against as general, 'main enemy'.
It's more than interesting how the spread of 'fear' is introduced to the public. Some weeks ago the government directed police allowed the international gathering of neo-nazis on Heroes square in Budapest, despite opposition parties asked the government and the police to stop that, and ban that. The government and the police could have done against that, but it seemed it was not in their 'interest'...There were 1000 skinheads marching then on the square, and the 'left wing' Gyurcsany-biased media could 'show' something. Fidesz asked the government and Gyurcsany then why they didn't do anything before against that, they could have had enough time, and knew well in advance about the neo-nazi assemly, and still hadn't done anything but let them march.
The question arise: why normal people, under the negative influence can't have the right to free speech, and protest against the bad economical attitude of the government, if they wanted, where they want, and why the 'iron curtain fence' around the parliament is still existing when even the governmengt parties agreed on its illegal state? About a month ago, about 80 Fidesz representatives went out of the parliament and one moment to the other, in the presence of the surprised police dissambled the police created iron fence around the