Prague, December 18 (IANS): Former Czech president Vaclav Havel, who was also a playwright, essayist and poet, has died at the age of 75 after a long illness, Xinhua reported Sunday. Havel died during sleep in his countryside home in Hradecek, the Czech News Agency said, quoting his secretary. He became president of then Czechoslovakia in 1989, oversaw its peaceful split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993 and led the country until 2003.
