World leaders bid farewell to Vaclav Havel
PRAGUE (Reuters) International leaders bade farewell on Friday to former Czech President Vaclav Havel, the anti communist dissident who led the peaceful Revolution and inspired human rights campaigners around the world. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband former President Bill Clinton, joined canada goose store leaders from France, Britain and many ex communist countries for the funeral mass in the gothic St. Vitus cathedral at Prague Castle, the seat of Czech kings and presidents.
Havel, a dissident playwright who died on Sunday at 75 after a long respiratory illness, served five years in jail canada goose clearance sale for his criticism of oppressive communist rule before rising to the presidency of what was then Czechoslovakia in late 1989.
He stepped down as Czech president in 2003 but remained a symbol of struggle for freedom and human rights, although his proclamation that and love must win over lies and hatred turned bitter to some Czechs amid economic hardship and corruption in the years after the end of totalitarian rule.
A thousand guests filled the monumental cathedral for the mass, Canada Goose Jackets while thousands more followed the service on large screens outside.
fought against the communists, stuck to his opinion, made big sacrifices, said 14 year old Anezka canada goose coats on sale Chroustova, who brought a bunch of yellow roses.
Havel widow, actress Dagmar Havlova, clad in a black veil, sat in the canada goose uk black friday front canada goose uk shop row at canada goose clearance the mass celebrated by archbishop Dominik Duka, the head of the Czech Catholic church. Havel casket lay canada goose on the floor, Canada Goose Outlet covered by a Czech flag.
Sirens Canada Goose Parka and church bells rang around the central European country at noon in Havel memory and cheap canada goose uk many people stopped on the streets to observe cheap Canada Goose a minute of silence, some moved to buy canada goose jacket tears. Some factories stopped work.
On Wednesday, over 10,000 mourners had marched through Prague cobblestoned medieval streets, led by his widow, to pay their respects. Thousands of candles were uk canada goose burning at Prague Wenceslas Square and Narodni Trida, the main spots of the Velvet Revolution demonstrations.
Havel dissident friend Lech Walesa, the first post communist democratic president of Poland, was among the guests. Russia, which Havel criticized for human rights abuses and democratic shortfalls as recently as this month, was represented by rights ombudsman Vladimir uk canada goose outlet Lukin.
Bill canada goose uk outlet Clinton presence was testimony to his close relationship with Havel, who took him to drink beer in a Prague pub and play saxophone in a club when he visited in 1994.
Havel developed close ties with the United States and took https://www.forcanadagoose.ru the Czech Republic to NATO in 1999 and the European Union Canada Goose Online in 2004. secretary of state under canada goose factory sale Clinton and a friend of Havel.
The service ended with the Czech national anthem and 21 howitzer gun salvos. The crowd outside the cathedral clapped as Havel coffin was taken away for a private family memorial.
Havel, whose dramas of the absurd were popular in the 1960s before he was banned from public life after the Soviet invasion in 1968, had felt most canada goose black friday sale at home buy canada goose jacket cheap among artists, including the Rolling Stones who played in Prague in 1990 just a few months after the revolution.
A rock Canada Goose Coats On Sale concert and a festival of his plays was due to take place canada goose outlet later on Friday at the Lucerna Palace that the Havel family built in the early 20th century. Four thousand Canada Goose sale tickets to the event were snapped up in minutes.
The program includes a show by canadian goose jacket The Plastic canada goose coats People of the Universe, a band whose persecution in the 1970s led Havel and others to form the Charter 77 movement that became the main opposition platform.
Heads of states and government officials from around the world sit around the coffin of late former President Vaclav Havel during the Canada Goose online funeral ceremony inside Prague Castle’s St. Vitus Cathedral, December 23, 2011.