Infowar against EU Enlargement?
Hungary and Amnesty International
As the reality of EU enlargement slowly approaches, the Hungarian government has grown increasingly nervous. Many are afraid that the final goal of joining the EU will somehow escape their reach. This anxiety has been such over the last six months that the government is convinced that there actually exists a campaign to derail the enlargement process.
The latest incident feeding these fears was an Amnesty International (AI) advertisement campaign in neighbouring Slovenia. The campaign featured the bruised foot of a supposed Hungarian policeman, with a caption leaving open to speculation as to what condition the victim must have been in.
The intended purpose of the advertisement was to draw attention to the fact that the police in Hungary ill-treats detainees. Soon after the AI campaign appeared, the Hungarian authorities launched a protest with the human rights organisation. Meanwhile, the head of the AI chapter in Hungary resigned because of the affair, noting that the Slovenian campaign was uncalled for.
While the London headquarters of AI admitted that the Slovenian campaign was in bad taste and that the information presented were not those of an actual Hungarian policeman, AI nevertheless refused to apologise for the incident. According to spokeswoman Ann Burley, AI has reports that such actions on the part of the police do exist.
As with the recent war of words between China and the US over the spy plane incident, Hungarian authorities are not satisfied with AI's simple expression of regret. They are still waiting for AI to provide them with factual proof of such human rights abuses. Admittedly, the authorities do acknowledge that some cases of mistreatment on the part of the police do exist, yet they maintain that it's not institutionalised as AI makes it out to be. What is more, they point out that the fact certain police officers get out of hand is something endemic to all countries, even those with an acceptable record on human rights.
As if to add fuel to the fire, soon after the incident made headlines in the local media the Hungarian State Security office revealed it had information that a foreign secret service organisation was involved in the matter, and that it most likely provided AI with misleading information. Anne Burley rejected this assertion outright, stating that AI relies on information from a wide range of trusted sources including individuals, NGO's, and other human rights organisations. She didn't elaborate, however, how AI could be certain that misleading information wasn't relayed unintentionally via one of their trusted sources.
Normally, a country not happy with an AI report simply ignores its assertions, or plays them down in any number of ways. Austria is a case in point: it was also targeted by the AI campaign, but it merely issued a statement that it was looking into the matter.
Yet for Hungary, this isn't the first such controversy involving the human rights organisation. A similar campaign occurred late last year with the Dutch arm of AI. In that advertising campaign, it featured the image of a ten-year old with missing teeth, alleging that the Hungarian police routinely beat up young offenders. Eventually, AI apologised for that incident, although at the beginning they were just as adamant that they did nothing wrong.
The Hungarian authorities are convinced that the country is the victim of a secret and sophisticated smear campaign, aimed at trashing their human rights record and thus putting their application for EU membership at risk. As if to substantiate this conspiracy theory, they point to a recent article in Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor, a leading military intelligence report. The article maintains that the flight of the Zamoly Roma, who fled to Straousburg seeking political asylum, was instigated by the Russian secret service. For many, this would make perfect sense since Russia has always been opposed to the expansion of western institutions into what was once considered their "sphere of influence".
Interestingly enough, it's not only the Hungarian government which harbours such views. Slovakia also feels that the "Roma problem" is being aggravated by outside forces. Belgium recently lifted visa restrictions for Slovak citizens, and since then the number of Roma who have left the country has risen exponentially. For the Slovak authorities, because the Roma are not likely to receive social assistance in Belgium and that those who left knew exactly where to go for help, is proof enough and that some kind of secret network exists to undermine the credibility of the government.
In response to this perceived threat of an infowar against EU enlargement, the Hungarian authorities have decided to go on the offensive. It has launched a mass media counter-campaign to the AI one. Additionally, it has taken on several social initiatives to convince the Roma to stay in Hungary and to solve their problems at home, rather than uproot themselves and become strangers in a foreign land.
Meanwhile, on the political front, Hungary is continuing to push the EU to make their plans for enlargement more transparent and to fix a date. On this last point, EU officials are understandably reluctant. There are still a dozen and a half issues which need to be resolved; one of them is what to do with Hungary's old nuclear power plant at Paks, which will soon be decommissioned. The government has as yet to come up with a sound strategy for dealing with the plant's closure and the nuclear waste, which used to be taken by Russia. In fact, the issue of garbage in general is something which Hungary desperately needs to address.
With so many issues still left unresolved, and the slow pace with which changes are being undertaken, it should come as no surprise that the enlargement process is stumbling on the way it is. Hence, the idea that an infowar will stall -- or may even derail -- the enlargement process is highly unlikely. If the process does falter, there are many other reasons to slow or postpone Hungary's entry into the EU than simply its human rights record.