Hungary to Skip Exercises, Wants Out of Pact in 1991

This nation wants to leave the Warsaw Pact by late 1991 and will not take part in its military exercises this year, Defense Minister Lajos Fur said Friday.

He said Soviet Defense Minister Dmitri T. Yazov seemed to accept the Hungarian position but that the idea seemed “quite repulsive” to the supreme military leaders of the Warsaw Pact.

Hungary tried to leave the Warsaw Pact at the height of the 1956 uprising against Soviet domination, but was thwarted by an invasion of Soviet tanks.

About 65,000 Soviet troops were subsequently stationed in Hungary until a partial withdrawal began last year. Moscow has agreed to remove the remaining 50,000 troops by mid-1991.

Hungary’s first post-Communist government took office in May pledging to launch talks on leaving the seven-nation Pact, without setting a departure deadline.

Fur’s statement marked the first time that Hungary had publicly set a date on leaving the pact, which has been hit by the collapse of old-style communism in the Soviet Union’s Eastern European allies.

He spoke in Moscow to the Hungarian news agency MTI, monitored in Budapest, after a Warsaw Pact summit Thursday and meetings with Soviet and Warsaw Pact military officials Friday.

MTI quoted Fur as saying: “During the talks, I stated that Hungary was not to take part in the Warsaw Pact military exercises this year and intended to place the Hungarian army fully under national command.

“I also said this had partly to do with the review of the Warsaw Pact just now initiated and partly with Hungary’s wish to cancel its Warsaw Pact membership by late next year.

“Until then, the emphasis should be laid on (the pact’s) political character. Besides, the country’s economic situation does not allow for spending millions on maneuvers.”

Warsaw Pact leaders declared their intention Thursday to review the nature of the group and start transforming it into “an alliance of sovereign and equal states resting on democratic principles.”

The Warsaw Pact controls about 3 million troops, although the key front-line East German army is already disintegrating as the country moves toward unification with West Germany.

Fur, a member of the conservative Hungarian Democratic Forum which won multi-party elections March 25 and April 8, said he had called on Yazov to accelerate the pullout.

“The Soviet side responded by saying this could not be met because of transport and accommodation problems,” MTI quoted Fur as saying.

Hungary is at loggerheads with Moscow over Soviet demands for $600 million in compensation for what it leaves behind after the full troop withdrawal.

Hungarian Brig. Gen. Ferenc Sandor told a Budapest news conference earlier Friday that Hungary was determined not to hand over a single penny.

He said Soviet investments made with Hungarian consent amounted to only a quarter of that figure and that compensation owed to Hungary for medical treatment and as rental for premises occupied by the Soviets would cut the figure payable to zero.