Czechs and world leaders paid emotional tribute to Vaclav Havel on Friday at a pomp-filled funeral ceremony, ending a week of public grief and nostalgia over the death of the dissident playwright who led the 1989 revolution that toppled four decades of communist rule.
Bells tolled from churches while a wailing siren brought the country to a standstill in a minute of silence for the nation's first democratically-elected president after the nonviolent "Velvet Revolution."
Family members, friends and leaders from dozens of countries gathered Friday at the towering, gothic St. Vitus Cathedral which overlooks Prague. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron were among some 1,000 mourners who bowed their heads in front of the coffin draped in the Czech colors.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who was Havel's political archrival, and two friends — Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg and former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright — paid tribute to Havel at the cathedral, which dates to the 10th century and has not witnessed a state funeral since 1875.
"He was our star, he gave us democracy," said Iva Buckova, 51, who had traveled from the western city of Plzen. "He led us through revolution. We came to see him for the last time."
In a message read at the funeral by the Vatican's former diplomatic representative in Prague, Pope Benedict XVI praised Havel. "Remembering how courageously Mr. Havel defended human rights at a time when these were systematically denied to the people of your country, and paying tribute to his visionary leadership in forging a new democratic polity after the fall of the previous regime, I give thanks to God for the freedom that the people of the Czech Republic now enjoy," he said.
Europe owes Vaclav Havel a profound debt," David Cameron, Britian's PM said before departing from London. "Havel led the Czech people out of tyranny ... and he helped bring freedom and democracy to our entire continent."
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