Last Hungarian Soldiers Leave Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041220/ap_on_re_mi_ea/hungary_iraq&cid=540&ncid=1473

BUDAPEST, Hungary - The last of Hungary's 300 soldiers serving in a transportation unit south of Baghdad left Iraq (news - web sites) on Monday and will be home in a few days, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.


"The soldiers are in now Kuwait and all will return home by Christmas," ministry spokesman Istvan Bocskai said.


Hungary's parliament last year authorized the soldiers' mission, but restricted their activities to non-combat duties and set an end date of Dec. 31, 2004.


The Hungarian unit was based in the city of Hillah and mostly provided transportation services for coalition troops.

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[NYC]

1. PM promises soldiers: "You'll be home for Christmas."

http://www.budapestsun.com/full_story.asp?ArticleId={E095F7A5886A43F09E6282AB744C82FD}&From=News

Direct link probably won't work, so go to http://www.budapestsun.com , then find the title in the subject line above on the front page of the paper.

HUNGARIAN PM Ferenc Gyurcsány, visiting the Hungarian contingent at the Al-Hillah base on Saturday (December 11), promised troops they will spend Christmas in Hungary, and expressed his gratitude for their service.

Major Dezsô Kiss, a spokesperson for the Hungarian Army, told The Budapest Sun that "it was morally useful for the Hungarian soldiers to have met the prime minister, and that he thanked them for their work in person." ...The prime minister also visited the monument to Richárd Nagy, the only Hungarian victim of the deployment.

...Hungary will give 77 of its decommissioned Soviet era T-72 battle tanks to the newly forming army of the democratic Iraq...

Gyurcsány also talked about the NATO training camp to be established in the summer of 2005, and the 150 Hungarian soldiers who would be sent to Iraq to defend the camp.

He added that, "the government has refused to send Hungarian forces for transportation or other dangerous services."

In the meantime, Hungarian soldiers are preparing to come home.

The exact date of the departure and the routes of the four groups are being kept secret to prevent a possible attack against the Hungarian convoys by insurgents.

Only the departure of 300 soldiers from Kuwait on December 22 is certain.

[Merlin]

2. But what about Poland? Don't forget Poland!

:bounce: