VACLAV HAVEL (1936 - 2011)

Vaclav Havel 1936 - 2011

News that Vaclav Havel, the Czech Republic's first president after the Velvet Revolution against communist rule, has died at the age of 75 will sadden many and bring back memories of the revolutions that swept Eastern Europe in the autumn of 1989. Havel a former dissident playwright, had suffered from prolonged ill-health, died this (Sunday) morning. Havel was born in 1936 to a wealthy family in Czechoslovakia and as a result was a marked man, considered by the Communist authorities as "too bourgeois", he was banned from going to University, so he studied at night school. He wrote, had his writing banned and his plays forced underground after the 1968 Prague Spring. He first came to international prominence as a dissident playwright in the 1970s through his involvement with the human rights manifesto Charter 77. In 1977, he co-authored the the Charter 77 movement for democratic change and faced along with other prominent dissidents near constant harassment. Havel was imprisoned and became Communist Czechoslovakia's most famous dissident and refused to compromise with the Communist authorities. Havel given the choice by the Communists, refused to leave the country preferring to stay and continue the struggle against Communist tyranny. Havel and the charter 77 dissidents were heavily involved in the successful velvet revolution in November 1989 which saw the effective peaceful demise of the Communist dictatorship. He was elected as Czechoslovakia's first post-communist president in December 1989. Havel successfully oversaw the difficult transition from authoritarian communism to democracy, and presided over the "velvet divorce" which saw the peaceful creation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. Havel, left office in 2003 and continued writing. He died at his country home north-east of Prague.

CUBA - THE OVERDUE REVOLUTION

International Human Rights Day passed in Cuba with Cuban dissidents, who were trying to hold a silent march in Havana, being confronted by organised crowds chanting pro-government slogans (perhaps a shade of the old Czechoslovak Communist Government tactic with Charter 77). Pro Government supporters screaming insults broke up two small groups of dissidents marching through Havana.

A UK diplomat was also harassed and ended up having to be protected by plain clothes police officers. On the other side of Havana, there as a second protest march, by the Ladies in White, who are the mothers and wives of prisoners - they too were surrounded and jostled.

In classic Soviet era double speak the Cuban authorities called the counter-demonstrations spontaneous outbursts by concerned citizens defending the Cuban revolution. The reality say critics of the Cuban one Party state is organised mobs aimed at intimidating any opposition. So much for Raul Castro who hinted that he would end such tactics when he took over the presidency from his brother, Fidel, but old Soviet habits, die hard.

The significant achievements in health, education and literacy are real achievements, but they are overshadowed by the continuing fact that a one party state is a one party state, a dictatorship is a dictatorship, whether nominally in the name of the proletariat or not - it's time for the long overdue democratic revolution in Cuba, its time for real democracy.