Havel Exits Stage as Czechoslovak President

Vaclav Havel, the playwright who led the “Velvet Revolution” against communism, stepped down as president Monday after failing to halt Czechoslovakia’s disintegration.

The resignation left the country without a president as its Czech and Slovak regions moved toward a formal dissolution of the 74-year-old nation. Unlike in Yugoslavia and parts of the former Soviet Union, a peaceful split appears certain.

Havel, one of Eastern Europe’s best-known dissidents under the Communists, was an increasingly lonely voice against ending the union of Czechs and Slovaks.

He said he sees the inability to save the federation as “a big failure of us all, not only mine personally, but, of course, also mine.”

“I am not sad. I have a feeling of certain relief, of certain alleviation,” Havel told reporters at Lany, a presidential residence 25 miles from Prague.

He said he might seek to become president of an independent Czech republic, once such a post is created.

Last month, Czech Premier Vaclav Klaus and Slovak Premier Vladimir Meciar agreed to split the federation and asked their regional legislatures to work out the details by Sept. 30.

In Washington, President Bush praised Havel as “one of the outstanding statesmen of our time” and said he regrets his departure. “President Havel’s courage has come to symbolize the determination of all the peoples of Eastern Europe to reject communism and to accept the challenges of the transition to democracy and a free-market economy,” Bush said. He said he remains confident that the future of the Czech and Slovak federal republic will remain “peaceful, cooperative and democratic.”