U.S. congressional leaders have unveiled a bust of the late Czech President Vaclav Havel at a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol building.
The ceremony on November 19 was attended by Havel's widow, Dagmar, and Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.
House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said Havel, the dissident playwright who led Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution in November 1989, "exposed the communists, using the one weapon that they couldn’t match, and that was the truth."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Havel's leadership served as an example to people everywhere in the world striving for democracy and human rights.
Havel's bust now stands in the domed building's Statuary Hall alongside those of other eminent leaders such as Britain's Winston Churchill.
The ceremony came as Czechs and Slovaks mark the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, peaceful anticommunist protests which eventually led to democracy.
Based on reporting by voanews.com and praguepost.com
