Dostal, communist-era Czech dissident

PRAGUE – Czech Culture Minister Pavel Dostal, an anti-communist dissident playwright turned politician, died on Sunday after a year-long battle with cancer.

He was 62. Dostal’s life closely mirrored that of his long-time friend and confidante Vaclav Havel.Also a playwright and theatre director, Dostal was one of the dissidents who tried to keep Czechoslovak Radio broadcasting as Russian tanks rolled through the streets of the country in a crackdown on the rising quest for democratic reforms brought about by the 1968 Prague Spring.Afterwards he was forced by the hardline Communist authorities to work as a labourer, sometimes shovelling coal into heating units in apartment basements.”Mr and Mrs Havel see his departure as a big loss for our country,” Havel’s spokesman Jakub Hladik said.Dostal joined Havel’s Civic Forum political party after the fall of Communism in 1989.Wearing his trademark shawls and earrings, Dostal, just like Havel, rarely looked the part of a politician.He left politics and returned to the theatre after the Czech Republic and Slovakia split in 1993.But in 1996 he returned to parliament in the Czech Republic as a deputy for the leftist Social Democrats.In 1998 he became Culture Minister under Prime Minister Milos Zeman, and remained in the post through three more administrations.”Pavel Dostal was an excellent minister, a real servant of the state.He led Czech culture through a difficult transformation period.He had an extraordinary influence over the artistic community.He was a tireless political personality, but also a good husband and father,” said Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek.- Nampa-ReutersDostal’s life closely mirrored that of his long-time friend and confidante Vaclav Havel.Also a playwright and theatre director, Dostal was one of the dissidents who tried to keep Czechoslovak Radio broadcasting as Russian tanks rolled through the streets of the country in a crackdown on the rising quest for democratic reforms brought about by the 1968 Prague Spring.Afterwards he was forced by the hardline Communist authorities to work as a labourer, sometimes shovelling coal into heating units in apartment basements.”Mr and Mrs Havel see his departure as a big loss for our country,” Havel’s spokesman Jakub Hladik said.Dostal joined Havel’s Civic Forum political party after the fall of Communism in 1989.Wearing his trademark shawls and earrings, Dostal, just like Havel, rarely looked the part of a politician.He left politics and returned to the theatre after the Czech Republic and Slovakia split in 1993.But in 1996 he returned to parliament in the Czech Republic as a deputy for the leftist Social Democrats.In 1998 he became Culture Minister under Prime Minister Milos Zeman, and remained in the post through three more administrations.”Pavel Dostal was an excellent minister, a real servant of the state.He led Czech culture through a difficult transformation period.He had an extraordinary influence over the artistic community.He was a tireless political personality, but also a good husband and father,” said Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek.- Nampa-Reuters