A man writes a message in a condolances book as he pays tribute to former Slovak and Czech President Vaclav Havel on December 19, 2011 in at the Slovak government building in Bratislava. Havel, a dissident and playwright who was the hero of the 1989 Velvet Revolution against communist rule and became his country's first post-independence president, died on December 18 aged 75. AFP PHOTO/ STR