Grief and Shock All Over the Country

In the opinion of the security policy consultant, in recent months the tension has grown even in Baghlan province, which had been a relatively calm area, although attacks are primarily targeted at local criminal groups engaged in power struggle, and not the international forces. And this process is further escalated by the fact that it is difficult for the local people to accept the new governor of the province, who is only 30 years old, due to his age.

"This makes the relations between the governor and the local police tense. Unfortunately, it is a ’tradition’ in Afghanistan that police do not distance themselves properly from local criminal groups and drug dealers" – said György Nógrádi in the opinion of whom we can clearly state that troops serving in the province have an excellent relationship with both the new governor and the local police, since the Hungarian Police participate in the training of local public order forces.

The security policy expert has made it clear that each improvised bomb is different, therefore it is impossible to ’get prepared for them’ perfectly. Local criminal groups believe that with these explosions they can cause disturbance among ISAF forces. And once it happens, they will use a similar method more often, unfortunately, against soldiers serving in Afghanistan, in the opinion of Mr Nógrádi.

"Hungarians have been lucky so far since we haven’t had any serious casualties and fatalities. Quite obviously, the death of a soldier is a terrible thing in every case, but we must prepare for this possibility in the future as well" – stressed György Nógrádi, who believes that the Hungarian EOD technician who lost his life under tragic circumstances was fulfilling his task properly, since no other people were hurt in the explosion.

According to the expert on security policy the size of the explosive device that has taken the life of the soldier can be confirmed only after the investigation has been concluded, on the basis of wounds and the crater the bomb left behind. But it is most likely even in this phase that the weight of the exploded bomb exceeded 25 kilograms, since the state-of-the-art EOD robot usd by Hungarian EOD troops serving in Afghanistan could not grip the device. And these robots were designed to manage a 25 kg load. And – unfortunately – the tragedy couldn’t have been avoided even though Hungarian EOD personnel wear the most modern protective garment in the world, which protects them from fire, shock waves, and splinters. But the Tuesday explosion was such a big one that this garment could not save the life of posthumous Lieutenant Gyula Kovács…

"We found out Tuesday afternoon that the unfortunate EOD technician was born here. Since then Szeghalom has been mourning…" – said Mr József Macsári, mayor of the Békés county town upon the inquiry of honvedelem.hu. He visited the family of Gyula Kovács on the day following the tragedy and offered the assistance of the mayor’s office in every issue.

József Macsári told us that the EOD expert who died under tragic circumstances lived in Szeghalom until he turned 14, but his father and sister live in this town to this very day. According to the mayor many locals knew Gyula, moreover, he contacted the ’traditionalist’ club of the town on a regular basis since he often contributed to the private collection of the club president with military relics.

The mayor was informed that the body of the Hungarian soldier to whom this terrible thing happened will be brought home from Afghanistan on Sunday, and his funeral will take place on Tuesday the 17th of June at 4.00 pm in the Gyarmat-oldal cemetery of the town.