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| Former Czech President Vaclav Havel has died |
Vaclav
Havel, Czech dissident playwright who would become his country's first
democratically elected president, has died. Havel oversaw his country's
transition to democracy and the peaceful breakup of Czechoslovakia.
Former
Czech President Vaclav Havel died on Sunday morning at his weekend house in the
northern Czech Republic, according to his assistant Sabina Dancecova. The
75-year-old had long battled poor health, partly caused by the five years he
spent in communist jails.
The
dissident playwright wove theater into politics and became a hero in the
movement that toppled the 41-year communist rule of Czechoslovakia in late
1989.
He would
become the first democratically elected president of Czechoslovakia. After
overseeing the country's peaceful division into the Czech Republic and Slovakia
in 1993, he would govern as president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003.
Author:
Holly Fox (AFP; AP, Reuters)
Editor: Ben Knight
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