الرئيسية
PRAGUE (AP) — Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theater
into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia and
become a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War, has died. He
was 75.
Havel died Sunday morning at his weekend house in the northern Czech Republic, his assistant Sabina Dancecova said.
Havel
was his country's first democratically elected president after the
nonviolent "Velvet Revolution" that ended four decades of repression by a
regime he ridiculed as "Absurdistan."
As president, he oversaw
the country's bumpy transition to democracy and a free-market economy,
as well its peaceful 1993 breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Even
out of office, the diminutive Czech remained a world figure. He was
part of the "new Europe" — in the coinage of then-U.S. Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld — of ex-communist countries that stood up for the U.S.
when the democracies of "old Europe" opposed the 2003 Iraq invasion.
A
former chain-smoker, Havel had a history of chronic respiratory
problems dating back to his years in communist jails. He was
hospitalized in Prague on Jan. 12, 2009, with an unspecified
inflammation, and had developed breathing difficulties after undergoing
minor throat surgery.
Havel left office in 2003, 10 years after
Czechoslovakia broke up and just months before both nations joined the
European Union. He was credited with laying the groundwork that brought
his Czech Republic into the 27-nation bloc, and was president when it
joined NATO in 1999.
Shy and bookish, with wispy mustache and
unkempt hair, Havel came to symbolize the power of the people to
peacefully overcome totalitarian rule.
"Truth and love must
prevail over lies and hatred," Havel famously said. It became his
revolutionary motto which he said he always strove to live by.
Havel
was nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, and collected
dozens of other accolades worldwide for his efforts as a global
ambassador of conscience, defended the downtrodden from Darfur to
Myanmar.
Among his many honors were Sweden's prestigious Olof
Palme Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S.
civilian award, bestowed on him by President George W. Bush for being
"one of liberty's great heroes."
An avowed peacenik whose heroes
included rockers such as Frank Zappa, he never quite shed his
flower-child past and often signed his name with a small heart as a
flourish.
In an October 2008 interview with The Associated Press,
Havel rebuked Russia for invading Georgia two months earlier, and warned
EU leaders against appeasing Moscow.
"We should not turn a blind eye ... It's a big test for the West," he said.
Havel also said he saw the global economic crisis as a warning not to abandon basic human values in the scramble to prosper.
into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia and
become a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War, has died. He
was 75.
Havel died Sunday morning at his weekend house in the northern Czech Republic, his assistant Sabina Dancecova said.
Havel
was his country's first democratically elected president after the
nonviolent "Velvet Revolution" that ended four decades of repression by a
regime he ridiculed as "Absurdistan."
As president, he oversaw
the country's bumpy transition to democracy and a free-market economy,
as well its peaceful 1993 breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Even
out of office, the diminutive Czech remained a world figure. He was
part of the "new Europe" — in the coinage of then-U.S. Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld — of ex-communist countries that stood up for the U.S.
when the democracies of "old Europe" opposed the 2003 Iraq invasion.
A
former chain-smoker, Havel had a history of chronic respiratory
problems dating back to his years in communist jails. He was
hospitalized in Prague on Jan. 12, 2009, with an unspecified
inflammation, and had developed breathing difficulties after undergoing
minor throat surgery.
Havel left office in 2003, 10 years after
Czechoslovakia broke up and just months before both nations joined the
European Union. He was credited with laying the groundwork that brought
his Czech Republic into the 27-nation bloc, and was president when it
joined NATO in 1999.
Shy and bookish, with wispy mustache and
unkempt hair, Havel came to symbolize the power of the people to
peacefully overcome totalitarian rule.
"Truth and love must
prevail over lies and hatred," Havel famously said. It became his
revolutionary motto which he said he always strove to live by.
Havel
was nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, and collected
dozens of other accolades worldwide for his efforts as a global
ambassador of conscience, defended the downtrodden from Darfur to
Myanmar.
Among his many honors were Sweden's prestigious Olof
Palme Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S.
civilian award, bestowed on him by President George W. Bush for being
"one of liberty's great heroes."
An avowed peacenik whose heroes
included rockers such as Frank Zappa, he never quite shed his
flower-child past and often signed his name with a small heart as a
flourish.
In an October 2008 interview with The Associated Press,
Havel rebuked Russia for invading Georgia two months earlier, and warned
EU leaders against appeasing Moscow.
"We should not turn a blind eye ... It's a big test for the West," he said.
Havel also said he saw the global economic crisis as a warning not to abandon basic human values in the scramble to prosper.