Former Maltese president attends Vaclav Havel’s funeral

Representing the Maltese government, President Emeritus Ugo Mifsud Bonnici joined world leaders today in bidding farewell to former Czech President Vaclav Havel.

Havel, a dissident playwright and the Czech Republic's first president elected democratically, will always be remembered for leading the 1989 revolution that ended four decades of communist rule.

World leaders like David Cameron, Nicolas Sarkozy and US secretary Hillary Clinton were among some 1,000 mourners who paid their tribute at the St Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

In a message read at the funeral, Pope Benedict XVI praised Havel for his work, which led to the freedom of his people.

"Remembering how courageously Mr Havel defended human rights at a time when these were systematically denied to the people of your country, and paying tribute to his visionary leadership in forging a new democratic polity after the fall of the previous regime, I give thanks to God for the freedom that the people of the Czech Republic now enjoy," he said.