Riots mar 1956 uprising commemoration

Hungarian police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at thousands of anti-government protesters yesterday, marring commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the country's 1956 uprising against Soviet rule.

Police also used water cannon and some protesters lobbed stones and other missiles at them. The ambulance service said that 20-25 people had been injured, although no one was seriously hurt. One policeman was stabbed in the hand.

As police pushed the crowd of mostly far-right protesters back towards a rally by the main right of centre Fidesz opposition and further away from parliament, demonstrators seized a Soviet-era T-34 tank - on show for the commemorations - and drove it at police.

"The whole crowd started cheering. The police started firing teargas, then the tank stopped," Reuters cameraman Fedja Grulovic said.

Reuters reporters said police had fired hundreds of teargas rounds and used mounted police to clear protesters from the streets and that paving stones had been thrown at the lines of police in riot gear.

There has been more than a month of demonstrations in the run-up to the anniversary following the admission by Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany in a leaked speech that he lied about the economy to win national elections in April.

Mr Gyurcsany has defied calls for him to quit, and backed by his Socialists and the Free Democrat parliamentary allies won a vote of confidence to carry on with his tough economic policies.

In parliament, the prime minister said Hungarians in 1956 had no choice but to rebel, and the country, which held its first free elections in 1990 and joined the European Union in 2004, was now a modern, democratic state.

"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.

Even before Mr Gyurcsany's speech was leaked on September 17, many on the right questioned whether celebrations should be led by the Socialists, heirs of the communists whose rule was cemented for 33 more years after Soviet troops put down the uprising.

Some 2,600 Hungarians died battling Soviet troops, more than 200 were executed for their role in the uprising and 200,000 fled the country.

Politics in the country of 10 million people is a bitter factional battle and elections are decided by a few tens of thousands of votes.

"I am here because we have to fight this government, we have to destroy them," said Laszlo Toth, aged 76, who attended a rally at Korvin Square at which veterans of 1956 were present. "Aged 19, I was arrested and taken to (secret police headquarters in) Andrassy Street, I confessed to everything so they would stop beating me. I am here for the younger generation," he said.

Fidesz leader Viktor Orban urged protesters to refrain from violence but told the rally estimated by state news agency MTI at 100,000 people the nation was facing an "illegitimate" government and demanded a referendum on its economic reforms.

When campaigning in the elections, Mr Gyurcsany promised tax cuts, but reversed tack after he held on to power and imposed a series of tax rises and benefit cuts to rein in the budget deficit which will hit 10.1 per cent of GDP this year.

"The current confusion is because of one man, who has driven the country into a political and a moral crisis by misleading the people," Mr Orban told the rally.