|
Home>News Center>World | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Hungary to withdraw troops from Iraq by March 2005 Hungary will withdraw its 300 troops from Iraq by March 31 next year, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said in Budapest Wednesday as US President George W. Bush, who led the invasion of Iraq, won re-election to a second four-year term.
"To stay there until the elections are held is our duty," Gyurcsany said, referring to elections set for January in Iraq.
"To stay there much longer is impossible. That is why by March 31, 2005, we are withdrawing our troops from Iraq.
Hungarian officials had earlier said they would put off the sensitive decision on whether to stay in Iraq beyond the mandate of its current mission -- which expires on December 31 -- until after the US presidential race was over.
President George W. Bush won Tuesday's White House race, with his Democratic opponent John Kerry conceding defeat Wednesday.
"A country that during the (US presidential) campaign says anything for or against with respect to Iraq inevitably gives ammunition for the two candidates to quarrel," Defence Minister Ferenc Juhasz told AFP last week in Budapest.
"We want to avoid becoming an internal political question in the United States when this is our sovereign decision," he said.
The Iraqi mission has been an unpopular one in Hungary, where opinion polls have showed a majority of the population opposed to the deployment.
In recent months the conservative opposition in parliament has also become increasingly vocal in its opposition, urging the withdrawal of Hungarian troops.
Gyurcsany's Socialist-Liberal coalition government would have needed the support of the opposition parties to have a two-thirds parliamentary majority to extend the mandate of the troops beyond December 31.
"If we decide to stay we would create serious domestic political conflict since most people would disagree," Juhasz said.
Nonetheless, a defence ministry official told AFP on Wednesday it would seek an extension of the Hungarian mission in Iraq at least until March 31 in order to help with preparations for the Iraqi elections.
"We will ask parliament on Monday to extend the mandate of our troops in Iraq until March 31," ministry spokesman Peter Matyuc said.
Hungary is one of 30 countries that contributed troops to the US-led force in Iraq in March 2003. Several allies have since withdrawn, including the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Spain.
The Hungarian soldiers are based at Hilla, 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Baghdad under Polish command and has so far suffered one fatality when a soldier was killed by a bomb south of Baghdad in June.
Warsaw is due to begin scaling down its troops in Iraq in January.
Juhasz has said that if Hungary, a member of NATO, opted for withdrawal it would look for other military missions abroad to which it could contribute the troops currently serving in Iraq. The country currently has 1,000 troops taking part in international peace-keeping missions, including Afghanistan. Hungary on Wednesday abandoned its military draft system after 136 years and Gyuarscany made the Iraq announcement at a ceremony where the country's last conscripts marked the end of their military service. |
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany announces the evacuation of the Hungarian troops from Iraq next 31 March 2005 in front of the statue of 'The ealdorman Arpad', (the first Hungarian leader), at the Heroes square of Budapest on 03 November 2004 during a military ceremony. [AFP]](xin_3911010410056603264012.jpg)
