[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 39 (Wednesday, March 7, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S2791]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        IN HONOR OF VACLAV HAVEL

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, today I wish to join my colleagues from 
the Helsinki Commission in commemorating the founding of the Charter 77 
movement 30 years ago, and praising Vaclav Havel, one of Charter 77's 
first spokesmen and the first post-Communist President of 
Czechoslovakia.
  Many aspects of Vaclav Havel's biography are well known. His advanced 
formal education was limited by the Communist regime because of his 
family's pre-World War II cultural and economic status. By the 1960s, 
he was working in theater and writing plays. But by 1969, the Communist 
regime had deemed him ``subversive,'' and his passport was confiscated.
  In 1977, he took the daring step of joining two others--Jan Patocka 
and Jiri Hajek--in becoming the first spokesmen for the newly 
established ``Charter 77'' movement. This group sought to compel the 
Czechoslovak Government to abide by the international human rights 
commitments it had freely undertaken, including the Helsinki Final Act.
  In the 1970s and 1980s, Vaclav Havel was repeatedly imprisoned 
because of his human rights work. His longest period of imprisonment 
was 4\1/2\ years, 1979-1983, for subversion. After this, Havel was 
given the opportunity to emigrate but, courageously, he chose to stay 
in Czechoslovakia. By February 1989, Havel had come to symbolize a 
growing human rights and democratic movement in Czechoslovakia and, 
that year, the Helsinki Commission nominated him for the Nobel Peace 
Prize.
  Remarkably, in November 1989, the repressive machinery of the 
Communist regime--a regime that for five decades had persecuted and 
even murdered its own citizens--collapsed in what has come to be known 
as the ``Velvet Revolution.''
  To understand just how repressive the former regime was--and 
therefore how stunning its seemingly sudden demise was--it may be 
instructive to recall the first measures of the post-Communist 
leadership, introduced in the heady days of late 1989 and early 1990. 
First and foremost, all known political prisoners were released. 
Marxism-Leninism was removed as a required course from all school 
curricula. Borders were opened for thousands of people who had 
previously been prohibited from traveling freely. Control over the 
People's Militia was transferred from the party to the Government. The 
Federal Assembly passed a resolution condemning the 1968 Soviet-led 
invasion of Czechoslovakia. Approximately 40 Ambassadors representing 
the Czechoslovak Communist regime were recalled. Newly appointed 
Foreign Minister Jiri Dienstbier announced that the ``temporary'' 1968 
agreement allowing Soviet troops to remain in Czechoslovakia was 
invalid because it was agreed to under duress and that Soviet troops 
would withdraw from the country. The Politburo announced it would end 
the nomenklatura system of reserving certain jobs for party 
functionaries. The secret police was abolished. Alexander Dubcek, 
leader of the 1968 Prague Spring, was elected Chairman of the Federal 
Assembly on December 28 and, a day later, Vaclav Havel was voted to 
replace Gustav Husak. In February 1990, Vaclav Havel addressed a joint 
session of Congress.
  Charter 77 paved the way for all of these things, and more: for 
Czechoslovakia's first free and fair elections since 1946, for the 
normalization of trade relations between our two countries, and for the 
Czech Republic's accession to NATO. Not surprisingly, the work of 
Charter 77 continues to inspire, as is evidenced by the adoption of the 
name ``Charter 97'' by human rights activists in Belarus, who are still 
working to bring to their own country a measure of democracy and 
respect for human rights that Czechs have now enjoyed for some years.
  I am therefore pleased to recognize the 30th anniversary of the 
Charter 77 movement and to join others in honoring Vaclav Havel who 
remains, to this day, the conscience of the global community.

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