ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)<br/> Thousands marched in the Czech capital, Prague, on Sunday night to pay their respects to former president Vaclav Havel.<br/> Many people laid down flowers or lit candles as part of a rally at the steps of the St. Wenceslas monument in the city centre.<br/> Former Czech leader Havel, a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War, died at age 75.<br/> As president of a country of 10 million, the former playwright oversaw Czechoslovakia's transition to democracy and a free-market economy, as well its peaceful 1993 split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.<br/> Even out of office, the diminutive Czech remained a world figure.<br/> He was part of the "new Europe " - in the coinage of then U.S. defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld - of ex-communist countries that stood up for the U.S., when the democracies of "old Europe " opposed the 2003 Iraq invasion.<br/> A former chain smoker, Havel had a history of chronic respiratory problems dating back to his years in communist jails.<br/> He was taken to hospital in Prague on January 12, 2009, with an unspecified inflammation, and had developed breathing difficulties after undergoing minor throat surgery.<br/> He left office in 2003, 10 years after Czechoslovakia broke up, and just months before both nations joined the European Union.<br/> He was credited with laying the groundwork that brought his Czech Republic into the 27-nation bloc, and was president when it joined Nato in 1999.<br/> Havel, who once took Bill Clinton to a Prague jazz club and was also a friend of Mick Jagger, rose to fame by facing down Prague's communist regime when he demanded they respect at least their own human rights pledges.
