Tributes for playwright president Vaclav Havel, 1936 – 2011
The dissident writer who led the Czech Republic out of communism has died after years of ill-health
FORMER CZECH leader Vaclav Havel has died in his sleep at the age of 75, after a long spell of ill-health. The first democratically-elected president of Czechoslovakia died yesterday morning at his weekend home in the north of his homeland.
Havel was a political playwright who spent years in communist Czechoslovakia's jails for his dissident writing after the USSR crushed the Prague Spring. He refused to be beaten and his thoughts and work went on to inspire the peaceful Velvet Revolution in 1989.
Elected president, Havel reluctantly oversaw the breakup of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. A small, moustachioed intellectual, he was a giant on the world stage, nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt:
"Vaclav Havel was one of the greatest Europeans of our age. His voice for freedom paved way for a Europe whole and free."
German chancellor, Angela Merkel:
"His fight for freedom and democracy was as unforgettable as his great humanity. We Germans in particular have much for which we are grateful to him. We mourn this loss of a great European..."
British PM, David Cameron:
"Havel devoted his life to the cause of human freedom. For years, Communism tried to crush him, and to extinguish his voice. But Havel could not be silenced."
Czech PM, Petr Necas:
"He did a great deal for this country, for its peaceful switch to democracy. He was the symbol and face of our republic abroad."
Austrian president, Heinz Fischer:
"With the death of Vaclav Havel, the impressive life of a great European, writer and humanist has come to an end."
Havel's English-language translator, Paul Wilson:
“Above all, he was an intellectual who believed that words were not enough... He meant that if you have ideas about how to change the status quo, you have an obligation to muck in and help bring that change about.”
Friend and fellow Charter 77 member Petruska Sustrova:
"He did not want to be a president. Ideally, he wanted to sit in a pub and reconcile quarrels. He was not very keen to enter politics, he thought it would cut him off from the normal world." ·
