Hungary Says No to Peacekeepers

The Budapest Sun

May 1, 2003 - Volume XI, Issue 18

No to peacekeepers

By Eszter Balázs

Hungary’s Parliament decided against sending peacekeeping troops to Iraq on Monday (April 28), despite an official request from the US.

The request fell at the first hurdle after opposition parties refused to back an amendment to normal Parliamentary procedure to allow the issue to be debated in short order.

On Friday last week (April 25) the United States officially asked Hungary to take part in Iraqi peacekeeping tasks.

Continued.

Parliament had to make a quick decision as the Americans left not much time between the request and the deadline for the arrival of peacekeepers (hoped for the end of May).

Rejected

With that in mind, the Governing coalition - which would have backed sending troops - asked for normal procedural rules to be waived, a proposal rejected by opposition parties.

Following the Parliamentary vote, Zsolt Németh, the head of the opposition party Fidesz’s foreign affairs committee, declared that his party supported efforts, including peacekeeping missions, aimed at reconciling the Iraqi crisis situation.

According to Németh, Fidesz had refused to back the cabinet proposal to send troops because the draft proposal did not include the word "peacekeeping" but instead talked about a general military participation.

Fidesz also considered it unacceptable that the proposal had asked for an authorization to send troops until June 30, 2004 instead of the originally proposed six-month deadline.

Németh added, "Out of the 19 Nato and four additional EU member states, only 11 had already decided to support the peacekeeping mission, thus Hungary is not late yet."

In the region, Poland, Romania and the Ukraine have already proposed sending of troops to participate in the peacekeeping mission.

Even if the Parliamentary parties had voted in favor of the extraordinary debate, the smallest opposition party, the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), said it would have voted against the proposal to send troops anyway, said Károly Herényi, the party’s caucus leader.

"In the lack of United Nations’ and Nato authorization, the MDF does not consider the American request to be supportable," explained Herényi.

Governing coalition MPs voted in favor of the discussion.

Arguing for the sending of troops, Minister of Foreign Affairs László Kovács had earlier said, "Without the restoration of peace, the humanitarian aid supplies do not get to the people in need."

Following almost two weeks of rumors of an unofficial US request (confirmed by the Hungarian Ambassador to the United States, András Simonyi), an official from the Embassy of the United States in Hungary handed over the official request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last Friday.

Earlier, ministry sources said the tasks of the Hungarian soldiers would include securing buildings and convoys, military policing, and water filtering.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Tamás Tóth declined to discuss the content of the communiqué from the US embassy.

Parliamentary parties had begun preliminary discussions on dispatching peacekeepers on Wednesday, April 23, two days before the official request came through, but without reaching any concrete positions.

Kovács said the mission, involving some 300 troops, could cost Ft2-4 billion ($8.9 -17.9 million), though the US had offered to fund half of the costs.

According to Minister of Defense Ferenc Juhász, more than 300 troops had applied for a posting on the Iraqi mission since since the disclosure of the unofficial request.

Hungarian troops serve in several peacekeeping missions around the world including Bosnia, Kosovo, Cyprus, Macedonia and Georgia.

http://www.budapestsun.com/full_story.asp?ArticleId={FCE0B83B6FF443C89C65E9D3914D7C9A}&From;=News

<  Security Guard Injured in Clash with British Troops | Iraqi welcome for US turns to fury  >