Vaclav Havel receives the Czech Republic's highest state honours
On Tuesday, Parliament presented former president Vaclav Havel with the Czech Republic's highest honours, the Order of the White Lion, First Class, and the Order of Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, First Class, the latter named after the founder and first president of Czechoslovakia. Speaking after the ceremony, Mr Havel, one of the most important Czech figures of the post-Communist era, said he regarded the awards as a tribute to the values he had believed in all his life: democracy, freedom and human rights.
The lion is the symbol of the Czech state, and the Order of the White Lion is given either to Czechs who have served the state in some very important way, or to foreigners who have done great service for the Czech Republic. Among the holders of the honour are Madeleine Albright, the Czech-born former United States secretary of state, Queen Elizabeth II and Alexander Dubcek, who led Czechoslovakia at the time of the Prague Spring.
The Order of T.G. Masaryk has been given to the likes of the widely respected broadcaster and politician Pavel Tigrid and Tomas Spidlik, who was recently appointed a Roman Catholic cardinal. The honour is given for outstanding work in promoting democracy and human rights, and that's something else Vaclav Havel commented on after Tuesday's presentation in the Senate:
Tuesday's ceremony did not pass without controversy, with senators and MPs from the Communist Party boycotting the event; Vaclav Havel had in a sense boycotted them throughout his 13 years as president. Some Communists even went so far as to say the Mr Havel did not deserve the honours, because he had been a "strong advocate of military action" when he was president. More significantly, the current president, Vaclav Klaus - who has never really seen eye to eye with his predecessor - also stayed from the ceremony. Mr Klaus said he had a prior engagement to speak at a university in Plzen.
