Responsibility of forces

The Gonczol report on the autumn riots fails to address the question of police responsibility and makes no attempt to examine the role of the government. But the Morvai report confines itself to looking at police brutality. Ferenc Koszeg is not impressed. The founding president of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee thinks it is especially dangerous that both the police and the secret services are in the hands of one person: the minister Gyorgy Szilvasi. Fidesz and Orban have only one desire: to bring down the government. Ill omens ahead of the long weekend.

Do the two reports published in February tell us any more about the autumn riots than we knew already?

We know a little bit more. We are no wiser as regards why it happened. But the two reports deliver a good summary of events, although the internal investigation commissioned by the national police chief had already covered much of this ground.

The convention is to accuse the other side of bias, dismissing the opposing point of view. Are the two reports worthless?

© Dudás Szabolcs

No, both are useful reading. The Morvai report is full of valuable detail and I think it wrong to describe it as a piece of propaganda. But it is true that it doesn't address the moral and political responsibility of the Right. It fails even to acknowledge that other acts of violence were committed beyond the occupation of the TV headquarters. This is ridiculous. In this respect, the Gonczol report is more objective, because it discusses the responsibility of both sides. It even admits that police chiefs made mistakes, although it does not go as far as to discuss the responsibility of the political leadership. It makes clear that Budapest's police chief and the national police commander made many serious mistakes, but it does not say the same of Jozsef Petretei or Ferenc Gyurcsany.

The police are a governmental body in every country, but in this country it seems that politicians are unsure of this. The Right blames the government for exercising an unhealthy influence over the police, while the Socialists deny this furiously. What is the situation in practice?

There are two contradictory elements in the Morvai report. On the one hand they criticise the government for showing no leadership, on the other, they claim Ferenc Gyurcsany gave the police direct orders. Under normal circumstance, the government bears political responsibility for the activities of the police, and they therefore have the right to direct police actions. At the same time, the government may not get involved in individual cases. It is clear, however, that the rules are opaque. It should not be up to the police chiefs to interpret them. Important decisions have to be taken by the people who bear political responsibility.

Should individual manoeuvres be decided on by ministers or the prime minister?

Of course not. They should not get involved in technical issues. But they could have ordered the police to use all possible means to protect the TV headquarters, and if they failed, the police should have been forced to explain what went wrong.

Some on the right believe even the TV siege was a government provocation.

The police made many mistakes on the night of 18 September. For example, when they took back the TV headquarters, they did not ask anybody to identify themselves. This is so ridiculous that they have given ammunition to the people who are convinced the siege was a provocation. I don't think this is the case, but police failing have made the claim seem more plausible.

The government is examining Gonczol's report at this moment. What did you like about her committee's report, and what did you disagree with?

I liked the objective way in which she examined the police actions. It looks like the internal examination was her main source. But Gonczol also relies on information for the least biased of sources, like the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. It expresses opinions on the performance of the police and the right to free assembly. But I think it was inappropriate to examine the riots in the context of Hungarian history. The past certainly played a role in creating today's political tensions, but the defeat at Mohacs doesn't explain everything - because otherwise everything you write turns into a polemical newspaper column. I'm also concerned that the report only addresses the serious injuries the police action caused in passing. The loss of an eye or a concussion cannot be dismissed by saying the police acted correctly by dispersing the crowd.