Honorary President, Czech Centre of International PEN

With his demise, Czechs have not only lost a great playwright and best president but for the many of our members, Václav Havel was also a wonderful colleague as well as a dear friend. It was his quiet but firm and uncompromising stance that first showed us how to stand up and fight for freedom, and in the years following the Velvet Revolution he precisely formulated what we often merely sensed. A great spiritual authority endowed with an enormous moral credit, he steered us to strive for the pure and general notions of Truth and Love. We shall miss him but what we carry on as his legacy will bindingly last.

With thanks for all condolences and messages of sympathy, we want to make it known that inside, Václav shall forever remain with us.

Jiří Dědeček

President, Czech Centre of International PEN