About 1000 people, some of them carrying Tibetan flags or posters reading Free Tibet, came to Prague’s Hradcany Square to welcome the Dalai Lama, who arrived to attend the 20th Forum 2000, founded by former president Vaclav Havel, the Prague Daily Monitor reports.
The Tibetan spiritual leader believes that Havel’s ideas will survive for centuries and that problems can be solved through a dialogue, he said in an interview with CTK and Czech Radio.
“Now, we have responsibility to keep these deep values. I am quite sure that you Czech people still love your late leader… It is not sufficient to just repeat his name, but his ideas, his concept must be alive,” he added.
Asked what he thought was Havel’s most important idea, he replied, “His sense of truth, his honesty and transparency—that he stood firm in difficult circumstances.”
The Dalai Lama’s visit has revealed fault lines between some members of the government and the president, whose spokesman lashed out at the culture minister for meeting with the spiritual leader.
Havel’s legacy was the focus of a recent forum at the National Endowment for Democracy, the Washington-based democracy assistance NGO.
