Related articles

The Czech Republic has begun three days of mourning in honour of its late president Václav Havel. State institutions are flying black flags with others at half-mast. Concerts, exhibitions and theatrical performances have been largely cancelled, and casinos and gambling bars are closed. Prime Minister Petr Nečas has asked businesses and all citizens to reconsider celebratory events that could be inappropriate. A day of mourning was last declared in 2001 to honour the victims of the attacks of September 11. Slovakia will hold a day of mourning for the passing of its former president on Friday.

The first president of the Czech Republic, the last president of Czechoslovakia, and foremost a humanist of world renown, Václav Havel died in his sleep on Sunday at his cottage in Northern Bohemia. He was 75 years old.

Speaking at the ceremony, President Václav Klaus praised his predecessor for contributing to the Czech Republic's international position, prestige and authority more than anyone else. He commemorated Václav Havel as a man who courageously and consistently sacrificed himself for his opinions, and called upon people to seek guidance and inspiration in his legacy and his example, stressing that the era that began with the fall of communism should not end with the former president death. The president described Mr Havel as a distinct and complex personality that defied “superficial assessment."

Mr Havel’s brother Ivan has organised a public memorial concert on Friday evening at the family’s Lucerna Palace on Wenceslas Square. The rock group The Plastic People of the Universe, which was closely associated with Václav Havel, will be playing along with other groups of the dissident music scene, Garage, Hudba Praha and the Velvet Underground Revival. Other areas of the palace will offer documentary films about the former president and other tributes.

Nearly 12,000 people have signed a petition to rename Prague’s international airport after president Havel. The initiative, started by film producer Fero Fenič on Monday, has already received the support of numerous Czech celebrities, among them Jiří Bartoška, Marek Eben and Zdeněk Svěrák, and singers Marta Kubišová and Hany Hegerová. Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda said Tuesday that the City Council would certainly support the proposal, but noted that the Ruzyně Airport was not city but state property. The website for the initiative notes that Mr Havel’s journey had taken him from the prison in Ruzyně to the whole world, and argues that many countries have airports named after their great leaders in their major cities.

Some 10,000 people on Wednesday joined the procession with the casket of the late ex-president. The procession, which included 600 soldiers, left the Prague Crossroads spiritual centre in Old Town and crossed Charles Bridge on its way to Prague Castle. There, in the Castle Guards garrison, the former-president’s casket was placed on a gun carriage, the same that was used during the funeral of Czechoslovakia’s first president, T. G. Masaryk. Drawn by three pair of horses, the casket was taken to the Vladislav Hall of Prague Castle where it will lay in state until Friday’s funeral.

The Czech Press Agency has confirmed that the following international leaders will be attending Friday’s state funeral: French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron, German President Christian Wulff, Hungarian President Pál Schmitt, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of Holland, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski accompanied by former presidents Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Lech Walesa, the president and prime minister of Slovakia, and the presidents of Estonia, Georgia, Austria and Slovenia. Most Other European countries are sending their ministers of foreign affairs; Russia is sending ombudsman Vladimir Lukin. From the United States, either President Barack Obama or Vice President Joe Biden is expected to arrive, accompanied by former president Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former secretary of state and Prague native Madeleine Albright.

The atmosphere in the Czech capital was somber on Wednesday as thousands of mourners followed ex-president Václav Havel’s casket on his final journey through Prague. Along the entire route from Prague Crossroads in the Old Town over Charles Bridge and up to Prague Castle people lined the streets, some holding candles, others photographs of the late ex-president, paying their last respects to the man who more than twenty years ago led his country to freedom and democracy.

The late Václav Havel is now being remembered as a great statesman and human rights advocate. But he was also a prominent literary figure. In fact, before he became an opposition leader in communist Czechoslovakia, he was already established playwright whose plays appeared on stages worldwide. Václav Havel’s literary agent Jitka Sloupová, from the Aura Pont agency, talks about what inspired his dramas that quickly gained acclaim both at home and abroad.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will attend the funeral of Václav Havel in Prague on Friday, his office said on Tuesday. Mr Sarzkozy will be one of many world leaders attending the funeral of the late Czech president and playwright, along with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the former US president Bill Clinton, as well as the presidents of Slovakia, Germany, Austria, Poland, and other countries. The funeral of Václav Havel, who died on Sunday aged 75, will be held in Prague’s St Vitus Cathedral on Friday; the ceremony will begin at noon.

The lower house of the Czech Parliament on Tuesday honoured the late president, playwright and human rights advocate Václav Havel. MPs held a minute of silence and the speaker of the house, Miroslava Němcová, read out some of Václav Havel’s quotes. The lawmakers also listened to an address by Václav Havel to the lower house from 2003. The ceremony concluded with the Czech national anthem.