Former President Havel calls on tourists to shun Cuba

Former Czech president and anti-communist dissident Vaclav Havel has urged tourists to shun Cuba as a holiday destination, in a video message showing solidarity with Cuban dissidents. The video shows the former president dressed in a prisoner's uniform, sitting in a make-believe waiting room amongst patients who are completely oblivious of him while Mr Havel recalls a personal experience of being taken, as a political prisoner, from his cell to a dentist's surgery in town where people in the waiting room pretended not to see him. Mr Havel's message was aired at a conference organised by Polish Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former president Lech Walesa, aimed at showing solidarity with dissidents in Cuba.