LM Report 2004

Hungary

Key developments since May 2003: In 200, Hungarian deminers discovered 178,013 items of unexploded ordnance, including 355 mines. Hungary has been developing and starting to field a number of systems to replace landmines. In November 2003, Hungary contracted assessments of the IHR-60, IHR-150 and HAK-1M for compliance with the Mine Ban Treaty and CCW Amended Protocol II, and concluded that all three devices fall outside the prohibitions and restrictions.

Key developments since 1999: Hungary became a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty on 1 March 1999. Previously, national legislation implementing the Mine Ban Treaty entered into force on 7 March 1998. In June 1999, Hungary completed destruction of its antipersonnel mine stockpile. Hungary has withdrawn from service its 400,000 UKA-63 antivehicle mines, which have tilt-rod fuzes allowing them to function like an antipersonnel mine. By the end of 2003, 40,000 had been destroyed. Hungary served as co-chair of the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction from May 1999 to September 2000.

Mine Ban Policy

The Republic of Hungary signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 6 April 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. In the previous years, Hungary participated fully in the Ottawa Process and the treaty negotiations. National legislation implementing the Mine Ban Treaty and criminalizing violations entered into force on 7 March 1998.^[1] Also in March 1998, the government hosted the first conference on antipersonnel mines in the region. Hungary has voted in favor of every annual pro-mine ban UN General Assembly resolution since 1996.

On 11 May 2004 Hungary submitted its annual Article 7 transparency report, showing no change in data from the previous report except for mines retained for training purposes. It has submitted five previous Article 7 reports.^[2]

Hungary has attended all annual Meetings of States Parties and intersessional meetings. Hungary served as the first co-chair of the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction from May 1999 to September 2000. Hungary hosted a seminar on the destruction of PFM-1 mines in February 2001.

Hungary has rarely engaged in the extensive discussions that States Parties have had during meetings on matters of interpretation and implementation related to Articles 1, 2, and 3. However, the Ministry of Defense stated in May 2001 that “Hungarian soldiers are not allowed to use antipersonnel mines abroad during NATO army exercises, and foreign soldiers are not allowed to use antipersonnel mines in Hungary during NATO army exercises.”^[3] During a conference on landmines held in Budapest in May 2002, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that neither foreign nor Hungarian forces are permitted to train with antipersonnel mines at the Taszár base, and Hungarian forces are not permitted to train or use antipersonnel mines abroad.^[4]

The Taszár base, its airport and the Ferihegy airport are used by the US military. No antipersonnel mines are stored at the Taszár military area, according to the Ministry of Defense.^[5] However, the leasing agreement for Taszár makes no reference to antipersonnel mines and “contact has not been made between the US authorities and the Hungarian MoD on this issue. The MoD has no knowledge of any US declaration to this effect.”^[6]

Hungary possessed 400,000 UKA-63 antivehicle mines, which have a tilt-rod fuze allowing them to function like an antipersonnel mines. These were withdrawn from service and a decision taken not to export them. By the end of 2003, 40,000 had been destroyed.^[7] This corrects previous information that all stocks of UKA-63 had been destroyed.^[8]

Hungary is a State Party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II. It attended the Fifth Annual Conference of States Parties to the Protocol in November 2003, and submitted its annual Article 13 report on 10 April 2003. Hungary has attended annual conferences to the Protocol and submitted annual reports in previous years. Hungary has supported CCW proposals on explosive remnants of war and on antivehicle mines. At the annual conference in December 2002, Hungary said it was willing to make available a bomb-disposal team to the UN and to help create an international database on explosive remnants of war. In June 2001, the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted an expert meeting on explosive remnants of war.^[9]

In 2003, a longer version of the Landmine Monitor report on Hungary was published in a Hungarian defense periodical.^[10] Hungarian-language versions of the Landmine Monitor reports on Hungary were also published in 2001 and 2002. On 19–20 April 2004, presentations on antipersonnel and antivehicle mines were made at the Military Technology 2004 conference in Budapest, including a presentation by the Landmine Monitor researcher.

Production and Transfer

Hungary was a significant producer and exporter of antipersonnel mines. Types produced included the M-49, M62, POMZ-2 and GYATA-64. Hungary also produced the UKA-63 antivehicle mine. Hungarian mines have been found in Angola, Cambodia and South Africa.^[11]

In 1995, Hungary informed the UN that it no longer produced or exported antipersonnel mines.^[12] In its first Article 7 report, Hungary noted that it had completed conversion of antipersonnel mine production facilities at the state-owned Mechanical Works Special (Mechanikai Muvek Specialis).^[13]

Stockpiling and Destruction

Hungary reported possessing 225,653 antipersonnel mines of two types upon entry into force of the Mine Ban Treaty.^[14] These mines were destroyed by 29 June 1999, completing Hungary’s stockpile destruction program.^[15] In 1998, prior to entry into force, Hungary had destroyed 149,686 GYATA-64 mines.^[16] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs clarified for the Landmine Monitor that in the 1960s it also possessed M-49 and M-62 antipersonnel mines, which were withdrawn from service and destroyed. Large quantities had been produced (1.2 million M-49s, 800,000 M-62s), some of which were exported.^[17]

As of April 2004, Hungary continued to retain 1,500 GYATA-64 mines.^[18] None of these mines has been consumed in permitted training and development activities since they were first declared in October 1999. In April 2001, Hungary reported that the 1,500 GYATA-64s would be destroyed by the end of 2001, but in April 2002 Hungary stated the mines will continue to be retained, for the development of demining techniques.^[19] Hungary’s most recent Article 7 report indicated that no mines were being retained, but this information was corrected for Landmine Monitor by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.^[20] In 2002, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Landmine Monitor that 6,548 inert GYATA-64 training mines were also retained.^[21]

Hungary also possesses MON-50, MON-100 and MON-200 directional fragmentation mines, which it has stated are capable only of being detonated by a control cable.^[22] According to a member of the Defense Forces, the MON mines are nearing their expiry date; there are only 2,000–3,000 left in active service and a similar quantity awaiting destruction.^[23]

Research and Development

Hungary has developed, as an alternative to the GYATA-64 antipersonnel mine, the IHR-60 “anti-infantry directed territory defense weapon.” This is described as capable of being operated only by a controlled, programmed detonator, and intended to be removed after the need for deployment has gone. The IHR-60 was developed by the Hungarian Army’s Military Technology Institute and manufactured by Pro Patria Ltd. of Budapest. In 2003, the Army acquired its first IHR-60 units, and intends to acquire “a relatively small number” in future years, “in a significantly lower number” than previous stocks of the GYATA-64. Hungarian military units offered to NATO will be equipped with the IHR-60. The Military Technology Institute is also developing the IHR-150, as a command-detonated replacement for MON mines.^[24]

The HAK-1M is a new antivehicle mine developed by the Military Technology Institute as a replacement for the UKA-63, TM-62P3 and MON mines which have been withdrawn from service. It is manufactured by Pro Patria Ltd. It has an operating time from 9 hours to 90 days, after which it self-deactivates. The detonator is described as having a double sensor, which activates only in the proximity of a vehicle of at least 5,000 kilogram mass and prescribed acoustic and magnetic characteristics.^[25]

In November 2003, the Arms Control Office of the Ministry of Defense contracted assessments of the IHR-60, IHR-150 and HAK-1M for compliance with the Mine Ban Treaty and CCW Amended Protocol II, and concluded that all three devices fall outside the prohibitions and restrictions.^[26]

Hungary is a member of NATO and has participated in its Antipersonnel Landmine Alternative project with research into a three-stage defensive system, which included the IHR-60 as one stage.^[27]

Landmine/UXO Problem and Mine Action

In its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 reports, Hungary indicates that it has no mined areas.^[28] In its 2003 CCW Article 13 report, Hungary stated that there are “no identified or suspected minefields” and therefore no mine clearance programs in Hungary.^[29] However, some areas in Hungary are contaminated by unexploded ordnance (UXO) and, to a lesser extent, by mines. Areas in which mine/UXO contamination deriving from World War II and the subsequent Soviet occupation has been found include Pest, Fejer, Komaron-Eszetgom, Veszprem, Gvor, Vas, Nagybajom, the Pilis Hills, and Lake Balaton. During the break-up of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, mines were also laid by Yugoslav forces on a 66-kilometer section of Croatia’s border with Hungary.^[30]

Mine/UXO clearance is the responsibility of the First Bomb-disposal and Battleship Regiment of the Hungarian Army. In 2003, the Regiment received 2,721 reports of mines and other suspicious explosive objects, resulting in examination of 38,145 square meters and discovery of 178,013 items of UXO, including 355 mines. Of these, 14 were active mines, including six antipersonnel mines (five POMZ-2s, one type 36-M) and eight antivehicle mines (two Soviet TM-41s, four German TMi-42s, one German TMi-43, one German TMi-35). The active antipersonnel mines were discovered in forest areas and in a green belt near Buda.^[31]

Police services seized mine components during a house search on 8 March 2003, but reported no criminal use of mines in 2003.^[32]

In 2002, there were 2,645 reports of mines and other suspicious explosive objects, resulting in examination of 34,230 square meters of land. A total of 359,802 explosive items was found, including 1,142 mines in 58 locations. Fifteen of the mines were active; two of these were antipersonnel mines.^[33] Since World War II, the Regiment has destroyed 20 million mines and UXO, clearing an area totaling 10 square kilometers. Most minefields were cleared from 1945-1957; since then the Regiment has been engaged with newly discovered mine/UXO contamination.^[34]

On the mined section of the border with Croatia, the Hungarian Border Guard reported in February 2003 that “there are still many dangerous locations near the border.”^[35]

Mine Action Funding and Assistance

In 2003, Hungary donated $10,000 to the Mine Ban Treaty’s Implementation Support Unit. Hungary’s 2002 donation of $31,000 to the Italian NGO Emergency for operational costs of Afghan hospitals treating mine survivors was received in 2003.^[36]

Three Hungarian military personnel trained in bomb disposal participated in KFOR in Kosovo. The First Bomb-disposal and Battleship Regiment gave its “preparing for activities in mined areas” training to Hungarian soldiers serving with international forces in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003.^[37]

In previous years, Hungary has made donations to the ITF (1999: $3,000) and to the NATO Partnership for Peace project to destroy Albania’s stockpile of antipersonnel mines (2000: $35,000). Demining equipment worth $50,000 was donated to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2000.

Landmine/UXO Casualties

An amateur collector of war relics was killed by a piece of unexploded ordnance on 1 November 2003.^[38] In December 2001, Hungary reported that, in the last 50 years, 300 explosive ordnance disposal personnel had been killed. It was also reported that there had been civilian casualties during 2001, and an average of two to three deaths per year, “mainly because people mishandle what they find.”^[39] Since 1999, Landmine Monitor has identified no other military or civilian casualties from either mines or UXO. Hungary’s annual Amended Protocol II Article 13 report states that there are no rehabilitation programs due to the “lack of victims with specifically mine-related injuries.”^[40]

[1] See Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 658.
[2] See Article 7 report submitted: 11 May 2004, but dated 29 April 2004 (for the period 1 May 2003–30 April 2004); 10 April 2003 (for the period 1 May 2002–30 April 2003); 24 April 2002 (for the period 1 May 2001–30 April 2002); 30 April 2001 (for the period 1 May 2000–30 April 2001); 25 April 2000 (for the period 27 August 1999–25 April 2000); and 1 October 1999 (for the period 1 March–27 August 1999).
[3] Statement by Col. József Tián, Ministry of Defense, 23 May 2001, p. 5. See also Landmine Monitor Report 2001, pp. 714–715.
[4] Statement by László Szűcs, Arms Control and Security Policy Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 8 May 2002; “International mine treaties. Humanitarian considerations, and the feasibility of certain military technology tasks – a national conference on mines,” Budapest, 8–17 May 2002. The Landmine Monitor researcher was present.
[5] See Landmine Monitor Report 2002, p. 298.
[6] Email from László Szűcs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 30 May 2003. For licensing of all transactions concerning military equipment, see Landmine Monitor Report 2003, p. 292.
[7] Béla Szabó, “Rendszeresítenek és kivonnak” (”Introduction and Withdrawal”), Magyar Honvéd (Hungarian Soldier, weekly magazine of the Ministry of Defense), Vol. XIV, No. 25, 20 June 2003, p. 10; Letter from Col. István Budai, Head of Technical Engineering Branch, Joint Logistics and Support Command, Hungarian Defense Forces, 14 January 2004.
[8] See Landmine Monitor Report 2003, p. 291.
[9] See Landmine Monitor Report 2002, p. 296, and Landmine Monitor Report 2003, p. 291.
[10] Tamás Csapody, “Aknák Magyarországon” (“Mines in Hungary”), Új Honvédségi Szemle (New Defense Review, a monthly publication of the Hungarian Army), Vol. LVII, No. 10, October 2003, pp. 116–130.
[11] See Landmine Monitor Report 1999, pp. 627–628, and Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 659.
[12] “Report of the Secretary-General: Moratorium on the export of anti-personnel landmines,” UN General Assembly, 3 November 1995, p. 6.
[13] Article 7 Report, Form E, 1 October 1999.
[14] Article 7 Report, Forms D and G, 24 April 2002 (for the period 1 May 2001–30 April 2002). Form G records the destruction of 207,198 GYATA-64 and 16,955 POMZ-2 mines. Form D records the retention of an additional 1,500 GYATA-64 mines. Hungary did not report the size of its initial stockpile on Form B.
[15] Statement by Gabor Bagi, Deputy State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at Zagreb Regional Conference in Antipersonnel Landmines, 28 June 1999. For details of the destruction program, see Landmine Monitor Report 2000, pp. 659–662.
[16] Article 7 Report, Form G, 1 October 1999.
[17] Email from László Szűcs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 30 May 2003.
[18] Email from Gyula Somogyi, Department for Arms Control and Non-proliferation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 14 June 2004.
[19] Article 7 Report, Form D, 30 April 2001 (for the period 1 May 2000–30 April 2001), and Article 7 Report, 24 April 2002 (for the period 1 May 2001–30 April 2002).
[20] Article 7 Report, Form D, 11 May 2004; email from Gyula Somogyi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 14 June 2004.
[21] Letter from Maj. László Kiss, Deputy Manager, Technical Service and Support Center of the Hungarian Army, 8 March 2001; email from László Szűcs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 17 June 2002. Hungary does not report these in its Article 7 reports.
[22] Email from László Szűcs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 30 May 2003; letter from Col. István Budai, Hungarian Defense Forces, 14 January 2003.
[23] Letters from Col. István Budai, Hungarian Defense Forces, 14 January 2003 and 14 January 2004.
[24] IHR-60 product information sheet, Military Technology Institute. Hungarian Army, at the Central European Defense Equipment and Aviation Exhibition, Budapest, 5–7 November 2003; letter from Col. István Budai, Hungarian Defense Forces, 14 January 2004.
[25] Imre Diószegi and Ferenc Hajdú, “HAK-1M páncélozott harcjármuvek elleni területvédo töltet” (“HAK-1M territory defense weapon against armored military vehicles”), Haditechnika (technical periodical of the Hungarian Army), special edition, November 2003, p. 12. The same sources report that Hungary purchased 80,000 TM-62P3 antivehicle mines from Bulgaria in the 1980s. These have never been put into active service, due to low-quality detonators.
[26] Letter from Capt. Zsolt Nemes, First Bomb-disposal and Battleship Regiment of the Hungarian Army, 15 January 2004.
[27] See Landmine Monitor Report 2002, p. 299.
[28] Most recently, Article 7 Report, Form C, 11 May 2004.
[29] CCW Amended Protocol II Article 13 Report, Form B, 10 April 2003.
[30] See Landmine Monitor Report 2000, pp. 662–663, Landmine Monitor Report 2001, pp. 715–716, and Landmine Monitor Report 2002, pp. 300–301.
[31] Letter from First Bomb-disposal and Battleship Regiment of the Hungarian Army (HTHE), 33/4/2004, 22 January 2004; telephone interview with Sgt. Maj. Róbert Sulykovszki, HTHE, 17 May 2004.
[32] Telephone interview with Bomb-disposal Service of the Standby Police (KRTZS), 29 January 2004.
[33] Information supplied by Lt. Col. Lajos Posta, Sgt. Maj. Attila Jansik, Sgt. Maj. Róbert Sulykovszky, and Col. Sándor Molnár, Commander of the First Bomb-disposal and Battleship Regiment of the Hungarian Army (MH HTHE), 1 April 2003. Equivalent data has not been reported for previous years.
[34] “Hungarian Army 1st EOD Battalion, 21–22 June 2001,” Report presented at the Second CCW Review Conference, Geneva, 11–21 December 2001.
[35] Col. Péter Zámbó, member of the Hungarian-Croatian Border Guard Committee, “Report on the status of mines deployed and partially removed on Croatian territory during the Yugoslavian war,” Border Guard Department, Border Guard Management of Pécs, 26 February 2003, pp. 4–5; Lt. Col. László Tóth, “Mines are picked up,” Border Guard Department, Border Guard Management of Pécs, 14 August 2002, p. 2.
[36] Letter No. 5817/Adem/KÜM/2004 from András Tóth, Head of Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 26 February 2004. This donation for Emergency was reported as $30,000 in Landmine Monitor Report 2003, p. 293. It was channeled via the International Trust Fund.
[37] Letter from Capt. Zsolt Nemes, Hungarian Army, 15 January 2004.
[38] ”Robbanás a XI. Kerületben” (”Explosion in district 11”), Magyar Hírlap Online (daily newspaper, internet version), 2 November 2003.
[39] “Hungarian Army 1st EOD Battalion, 21-22 June 2001,” Report presented at the Second CCW Review Conference, Geneva, 11-21 December 2001, and Landmine Monitor notes.
[40] CCW Amended Protocol II Article 13 Report, Form B, 10 April 2003.