1987. március (14-32. szám) / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2

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24/D little Rwsell Street, LONDON, W-C.l • Ttl. 01-4SO z< ze • G. Krasső

25/1987 /S/ loth March, 1987

March the 15th: A Great Political Demonstration in Hungary

After 30 years of enforced silence a large-scale political demonstration has taken piacé in Budapest today, on tne anniversary of the outbreak of the 1848 democratic revolution. The demonstration was led by such members of the democratic opposition movement in Hungary whose names have been little known abr.oad hitherto.

A few minutes before noon, after the end of the official celebrations, three young girls - all three belong to the democratic opposition - placed a big bunch of flowers on the plinth of the statue of Sándor Petőfi, the great Hungárián poet of the 1848 revolution. The ribbon of the bunch carried the following legend: "And it befits Mán to have right. Right therefore must be granted, the right of Mán to the people!" Signed: "The democratic opposition." The quote is from a poem by Sándor Petőfi entitled "In tne name of the people". Nearly 2,000 have gathered in the square around the statue. They sang tne national anthem, the second Hungárián national anthem, the so-called Kossuth songs and numbers of the Illés pop group which recall the memory of the revolution. ’Then there appeared a national flag and led by György Gadó, .bajos Jakab and Jr.Tibor Philipp the crowd set out towards the Kossuth Square /György Gadó, a contributor to samiz.dat journals "Hirmondó" and "Demokrata", had his home searched by police and was fined time and again in 1986 and 1987. Lajos Jakab is the organizer of a new independent publishing house, the "Áramlat" /"Wave"/ which formerly boré the name of "Szabadidő" /"Leisure Time"/. It was Jr.Tibor Philipp in whose home the INCONNU, the opposition political árts group, organized an exhibition com- memorating the 1956 revolution and where a memóriái evening on the eve of the anniversary of the 1848 Hungárián revolution and war of independence was held./

The square in front of the Parliament was barred by police on motocycles bút the marches - singing now the Marseillaise as well - still managed, in a round-about way, to get to the Kossuth statue. Standing on the plinth of the statue in front of a crowd of now 3,000 György Gadó held a speech.

"It had been a long winter - he said -, bút the spring was already Corning nearer." He ended his speech demanding "the reál freedom-rights": freedom of speech, freedom of press and freedom to gather. Gadó alsó spoke in front of the Batthyány memóriái wick. Expressing hope that soan people will be able to pay homage in front of a memóriái of Imre Hagy, the executed Prime Minister of the 1956 revolution, he welcomed the Hungárián renewal and the democratic opposition. Both of Gadó’s speeches were received with incredible enthusiasm by his listeners who tnen marched across Margaret isridge to the statue of Bem, the Polish generál leading Hungárián revolutionary troops in 1848. Here they were addressed by Tibor Pákh wno told tnem tnat he was seepng the same glow in the eyes of the young that he saw 30 years ago and he demanded the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary which was promised already then. The demonstration ended on the Batthyány Square in front of the statue of Kölcsey, the great poet.

It has again been proven that the atrocities of the pást 15 years on the day of March the 15th were initiated by the police; and done so witnout