UN to lift secrecy on 1956 related documents

Budapest, May 7 (MTI) – The United Nations will lift the confidential status of its documents on Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet revolution, Hungary’s foreign minister said on Saturday.

In the past, there was little knowledge of the fact that the UN was even in possession of classified files about 1956, Péter Szijjártó told MTI. But Hungary made diplomatic efforts towards further studying Hungarian affairs at the UN, as a result of which talks began on declassifying several documents on 1956, he said.

Talks were held with UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman who informed the Hungarian side about the decision to declassify the documents on Friday, the minister said.

Some of the documents are believed to contain testimonies by people who had participated in the revolution and others are likely descriptions about the events, he said.

The first historian specialising in the role of the UN in the revolution will arrive in New York on May 16 to begin reviewing the documents, Szijjártó said, adding that Hungary would contribute 50,000 dollars to aid the department’s efforts with the documents.

Hungary will mark the 60th anniversary of the ill-fated 1956 revolution with a series of events.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters