World leaders gathered in the Czech capital Friday to mourn Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright who led his country's Velvet Revolution against communism before becoming its president and later an outspoken campaigner for global human rights.
"As a prisoner, he confronted his captors with truth," former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in a eulogy at the funeral mass. "As president, he breathed new life not only into this republic, but into the deeply rooted tradition of humanism."
Among the dignitaries assembled in St. Vitus' Cathedral to honor Mr. Havel, who died Sunday at age 75, were current U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, as well as Lech Walesa, who led the fight against communism in neighboring Poland.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, were also on hand to grieve the man who led Czechs out from behind the Iron Curtain and laid the ground work for their membership in the European Union.
Video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yn0NFM-eAA&feature=player_embedded
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