Bush lauds democratic Hungary

Budapest: US President George W. Bush paid homage to Hungary's failed 1956 uprising against Soviet rule yesterday and hailed its commitment to democracy in a region that was long dominated by Russia.

Bush visited Budapest at the end of a brief trip to Europe that highlighted improving ties with the European Union, which Hungary joined in 2004, and the importance of democracy after years of Soviet control of central and eastern Europe.

Bush, who visits Russia next month at a time when Washington is accusing Moscow of backsliding on democracy, praised the courage of Hungarians who rose up against communist rule in 1956 before resistance was crushed by Soviet tanks.

"I am here to celebrate the 1956 revolution. The idea of a revolution is celebrating the notion that all men and women should be free," Bush said at the start of talks with Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom.

"I also bring greetings from a nation that admires your courage and desire to continue to do the hard work necessary for democracy to take hold," he said.

Bush later laid flowers at a black granite monument to the 1956 uprising outside parliament and stood before it with his wife in remembrance.

Hungary is widely held up as an example of the smooth transition from communist rule to a free-market democracy which resulted in the country of 10 million people joining Nato in 1999 and the EU five years later.

Bush was also due to deliver a speech of remembrance for the uprising, in which the West chose not to intervene at the height of the Cold War. Aides said Bush's remarks were intended as a simple remembrance of a historic time and not as a signal to Russia, although he will attend a summit of the Group of Eight industrialised nations in St Petersburg next month.

While Bush has stated his concerns about Russia's democracy repeatedly, he has been working closely with Putin in trying to contain the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush's remarks on the difficulty of building a democracy could be seen as relevant to the Middle East, where Washington hopes a stable, democratic Iraq will serve as an example for the entire region.

Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said he and Bush had discussed calls to relax US rules which exclude citizens of nine of the bloc's 10 new member states, including Hungary, from visa waivers enjoyed by most of its other 15 member states.

The only other stop on Bush's trip was in Vienna, where he participated in a US-EU summit dominated by Iran, North Korea, global trade and EU concerns about the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

THE UPRISING
What, when, why, where and how

In 1956, Hungary's living standards were still below 1938-levels after years of forced heavy industry growth at the expense of consumption, enforced by a harsh dictatorial regime.

The uprising started on October 23 with a student demonstration that attracted a crowd of 200,000.

The first Soviet tanks arrived by October 24, but it was the massive offensive on November 4 which led to the uprising being crushed by the end of the year.

The attention of Western powers was focused on the Suez crisis. However, there was little hope of them coming to the Hungarians' aide without triggering outright war with the Soviet Union.

At least 2,600 Hungarians and 600 Soviet troops died in the fighting, with more than 20,000 injured, contemporary official statistics say, but some estimates put the numbers much higher.

More than 200 people were executed for their role in the revolution during the subsequent reprisals, and 20,000 were imprisoned. Some 180,000 people fled the country.

Prime Minister Imre Nagy, who led the government after the start of the uprising, was later arrested and secretly tried. He was executed on June 17, 1958, and buried first in the prison courtyard then in an unmarked grave. He was given a hero's reburial in June 1989, symbolic for Hungary's democratic transition.