There are two types of tear gas used by the riot police in Budapest.  The first possesses a fairly rank odour and causes you to tear up in the same way as getting a broken nose.  The second type is much less forgiving: assailing your lungs with a peppery toxin that makes the bronchial passage convulse under the irritation of what would normally require one to consume mass amounts of cayenne, and also setting all the facial pours ablaze (making the tears and inability to see a secondary concern).  I was shrouded in tear gas not once, not twice, but ten times today, two of which were of the type two classification listed above.

 

The day started off fairly well.  Left the dorm with two of my Canadian brethrens and marched over to the Buda side of the river to view a new monument to '56.  Then went on a hike up the side of Cathedral Hill, where the Liberty Statue towers, and back down again.  After we went to CEU to watch the conference with Governor George Pataki of New York State.  All these pictures, including the various sites, will be posted soon.  After this, at about 3:30pm we marched over to Heroes Square where most of the happy festivities were to take place.  With only one street to go we marched staright in to the middle of a warzone between the riot police and the extreme right wing.  The street was lined with protestors for 3 kilometres, tens of thousands of peole, right wing, left wing, the indifferent, you name it!  It was initially about the political climate and Gyursany's lies, but another dimension, the dimension of the democratic right to freedom of expression, that united many political spectrums under one banner. 

 

The police were unrelenting in their assaults, hitting buildings that posed no threat and firing rubber bullets into crowds that were merely spectating (children included) and displayed not only zero hostility, but lacked the numbers to acutally do more than bark profanity at the hundreds of boys in blue.

I spent three hours within a few dozen metres of the front line.  People were dragging giant leters in to the street to spell 'Liberty' while others were simply trying to find a venue for them and their children.  I know this all seems so romanticized, and in part I have emphasized what could be termed as the 'good nature' of these events.  There were instances such as the rioters building barricades to slow police vehicles, using bricks designated for city renewal, and at one point, in front of my very eyes, a number of them managed to start a 60 year-old tank T-34 Russian model) that was part of a memorial presentation for the anniversary.  How they managed to start it, and more amazingly, how the fuel inside managed to still be of combustible (let alone present) is beyond me.  By the end of my journey, at approximately 7pm, near the Astoria metro station, I found myself standing amongst thousands who were attending a right wing rally led by none other thatn the leader of the opposition Solyom.  Although I did not agree with his political platform, supporters, or methods, I do find it extremely offensive that at a peaceful protest rally, forced from its week-long position at the parliament building, was assailed from 100 metres away by tear gas (type two).  The crowds at this place showed no signs of agression but did show 'Solidarnosh'.  They were targetted not for any other reason than the fact that the riot police had been at it for 3 hours and probably thought 'hey a group of people, lets keep firing tear gas'  when instead they should have known from the constant helicopter surveillance and extensive coverage of the rally at Astoria that perhaps there was need for restraint.

I am exhausted now, and need to sleep.  Mass protests are extremely exhaustive.  If anyone see my mom just ley her know I am okay and not involved...its better that way.

 

For now...

 

D.A.E.