Homage to Václav Havel

    "Truth and love must prevail over lies and hate."

 
Václav Havel 

(5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) 

last Czechoslovak and first Czech president, aged 75, died on December 18, 2011.

Former dissident, playwrite, a passionate supporter of non-violent resistance, a role in which he has been compared, by former US President Bill Clinton, to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., a leading figure in the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the bloodless end to communism in Czechoslovakia, has died.

In 1977, he co-authored the Human Rights charter called Charter '77, which brought him an international recognition as the leader of opposition in Czechoslovakia. Consequently, this led to his persecution by the communist regime, and repeated imprisonment.

He also would play chess and on the picture above you can see Bessel Kok, a Dutch entrepreneur, chess organizer and former  Chairman of World Chess Grandmaster Association from 1985 until 1991, who helped to establish the 2002 Prague Agreement concerning the World Chess Championship, and who was just forced by Václav Havel himself to resign.

A week before his death, Václav Havel was met by his long-time friend, the Dalai Lama, in Prague.

President Havel passed away peacefully on 18 December 2011 at his country home in Vlčice.  

R.I.P.