BUDAPEST, May 18, 2001 -- (Reuters) Hungary's security chief said in remarks published on Friday that anarchists are planning violent protests at a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Hungary's capital at the end of the month.
National Security State Secretary Istvan Simicsko told daily newspaper Magyar Hirlap that his office expects demonstrators from Germany, the Czech Republic, Britain and Denmark to descend on the three-day-long summit starting on May 29.
The National Security Office, the country's top security organization, is monitoring far-left, anti-globalization groups, he said.
The NATO meeting, which is usually held every six months, will be held for the first time in Budapest. Hungary joined NATO shortly before the Kosovo conflict in 1999, together with Poland and the Czech Republic. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to be among the participants.
Simicsko
said Hungary wanted to avoid violent demonstrations such as those that
took place at International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings
in Prague last September.