Hungary commemorates 1989 fall of Iron Curtain

Budapest: European leaders gathered in Budapest yesterday to mark the 20th anniversary of the symbolic fall of the Iron Curtain, often described as the first crack in the Berlin Wall and one of the key episodes leading to the end of communism in Eastern Europe.

The presidents of Germany, Austria, Finland, Slovenia and Switzerland, as well as high-ranking officials from Poland, Britain and more than 20 other countries participated in a commemorative session at the Hungarian parliament and a gala event at the Hungarian State Opera House.

On June 27, 1989, the then-foreign ministers of Hungary, Gyula Horn, and Austria, Alois Mock, cut through some barbed wire on the border between the two countries, putting a symbolic end to a physical and psychological boundary of which by then there was little left.

"Looking at the entire chain of events, we rightfully and deservingly celebrate June 27 as the day in which the partitioning of Europe came to an end," Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom said at the start of the special session in parliament. "We have every reason to celebrate together. The cut barbed wire fence was an immediate symbol that helped the whole world understand what was happening here in the centre of Europe."

Hungary had begun to dismantle the Iron Curtain nearly two months earlier, on May 2, 1989 - partly because border guards said it was in such poor condition that even small animals were setting off false alarms along the electrified fence.

With most of it already gone, officials had trouble finding even a small section of the Iron Curtain for Horn and Mock's staged photo opportunity with wire cutters.

"What happened at the end of June was a nice symbolic gesture... but the border continued to be strictly controlled," Swiss-Hungarian journalist and historian Andreas Oplatka said.

Speaking at a Friday evening memorial on the border with Hungary, Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger characterised the 1989 events as "the great triumph of the citizens of the former Eastern Bloc states."

"Today, watchtowers and barbed wire are a part of the past. The 'peace project Europe' has prevailed with much success," Spindelegger said.