Remains of Hungary's last communist ruler stolen

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

BUDAPEST, May 3 (Reuters) The grave of Hungary's last communist ruler, Janos Kadar, was prised open and his remains and the his wife's urn were thought to have been stolen, Budapest police said.

The marble cover stone of Kadar's grave was removed and his coffin was broken. Grafitti that read ''a murderer and traitor may not rest in holy ground'' was daubed on the nearby communist workers' pantheon.

''The bones appear to be missing and it also looks like his wife's urn is gone, too'' police spokesman Endre Kormos said yesterday.

''It's a relatively small hole so it's possible they were jostled around and we just can't see them but at this point, it's more likely they were taken,'' Kormos said.

Kadar ruled Hungary from 1956, when Soviet troops crushed the country's anti-communist uprising, until 1988 when he retired. He died a year later in July 1989, less than a year before the country's first free post-communist elections.

Kadar remains an controversial figure in modern Hungarian politics and a large segment of population continues to consider him one of the country's greatest statesmen.

In a survey done by polling firm Marketing Centrum in late 2006, 65 percent of Hungarians said Kadar played a positive role in Hungary's history.

His supporters argue that Kadar provided relatively high living standards for Hungarians compared with some other Soviet satellite states.

His opponents say he was brutal and that thousands of those who opposed communism were imprisoned, tortured or killed during his 32 years in power.

REUTERS DH BST0449

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