Families of perished explosives experts to receive over EUR 31,560 – UPDATE

Budapest, July 4 (MTI) – The families of the four military explosives experts who were killed when a WW2 bomb exploded on a former bombing range in eastern Hungary on Friday are expected to receive over 10 million forints (EUR 31,560) each in compensation, daily Magyar Idők said on Monday.

The amount of the compensation will be determined by the defence minister and paid directly by the defence ministry as Hungarian soldiers have been uninsured for the past four years.

Zoltan Szendrei, deputy head of the defence union, told the paper that military insurance plans were cancelled under former Defence Minister Csaba Hende on the grounds that insurance costs were too high relative to the risk of accidents. Now it is the defence ministry that compensates families in case of accidents, Szendrei said.

The ministry has said that the Hungarian Armed Forces will cover the funeral costs and take care of the widows’ pensions and orphan support for the surviving family members.

A fifth technician suffered serious but not critical injuries in the explosion and is now in stable condition.

UPDATE

The Socialist Party said support for the victims’ families should be guaranteed by law rather than subject to the minister’s discretion. In a statement, the party called it “unacceptable” that military personnel were no longer insured, and argued that soldiers “have the right to know what assistance families left behind can expect”.

The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) demanded that insurance should be available for all military personell.

DK deputy leader Ágnes Vadai said that the compensation to be paid to families of the victims is “not a favour but the least that can be done for their service to the homeland”.