President Vaclav Havel bouncing Czech

President Havel is a prize-winning playwright, theater artist, brewery, worker and "convict." His crusade for human rights won him the respect of his countrymen and the world. Son of wealthy parents who lost their fortune during the Communist takeover in 1948, Havel was denied higher education and was urged to leave his country. Determined, he stayed and took night lessons on economics. He sustained himself by working in the Prague theater and also through playwriting. In 1968, he became an activist for reforms and began a life-long crusade for human rights. Secretly, he published and distributed his essays in literary and theater magazines and supported his causes by working in a brewery. The government banned all his writings.

In 1977, he rallied Czech intellectuals to orchestrate the "Charter 77," a document ensuring Czech citizens basic human rights. Because of this, Havel was arrested and imprisoned for five years. The official crime stated: involvement with a group called Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Persecuted.

In 1983, he was released but was subjected to constant surveillance. Nonetheless, he continued to criticize the communist government through the underground press and for this he was imprisoned again until 1989 when an opposition movement which Havel helped organize culminated in a bloodless revolt called the "Velvet Revolution." Soon after Havel was elected President, the nation split into two: the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He was reelected in 1993.

A chain smoker, he underwent a lung operation in 1996 and developed complications that almost cost him his life. President Vaclav Havel is revered in his country and is one of the most recognized leaders of the world – an inspirational icon to fighters of democracy, symbolizing the "power of one" in changing the course of history through non-violent means.