PRAGUE (AFP) - Former Czech president and anti-communist dissident Vaclav Havel launched a major demonstration of support for the Cuban democracy by predicting that things were set to change in the communist country.
The summit, called "For Democracy in Cuba" was to bring together more than 10 former European and American heads of state and former prime ministers.
"I am sure that the situation in Cuba will change quickly," said Havel, calling for opponents of dictator Fidel Castro to prepare the post-Castro period.
"They should not think only of removing the dictatorship. They should devote all their time to what will happen next", he added.
Jan Pavelka, spokesman for the Czech humanitarian non-governmental organisation "Man in Distress" which organized the summit said the aim was to support initiatives promoting human rights.
Under the impetus of Havel, who spent more than five years in communist jails during the 1970s and 1980s, solidarity with present-day Cuban dissidents is particularly strong in central European countries which peacefully overthrew communism in 1989.
"Now we can repay our debt, we can pay it back to those who need our solidarity today," said Czech Senate Chairman and former dissident Petr Pithart at the event's opening.
In March Pithart did not hesitate to be kept in a symbolic prison cell in Prague city centre to raise awareness of the plight of political prisoners in Cuba.
The Prague summit was being held 18 months after the arrests in March 2003 of 75 Cuban opponents of the Castro regime and their sentencing to up to 28 years imprisonment.
They included the poet and writer Raul Rivero, who according to his wife is in a poor state of health.
"No one should be in prison without a fair trial, no one should be in prison like Raul Rivero because he wrote a poem against Fidel Castro," said former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar.
The summit heard brief video messages from opponents Vladimiro Roca Antunez, Elsa Morejon Hernandez and Oswaldo Paya Sardinas. They called on the international community to continue supporting their cause.
"As I speak, Cuba is coming closer to becoming a free island", said Oswaldo Paya, who has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Havel underlined that a free Cuba should take inspiration from the experience of eastern Europe.
He recalled that after the end of communism in his country in late 1989 he found himself spending nights writing the constitution and laws.
"We must put them on their guard so that they avoid the mistakes that we could not avoid," he said.
"After the end of communism, you must expect that there will be some sort of disappointment, they will think they will live in a sort of paradise, which won't be the case," he said.
"Some will be surprised to have so much freedom after all these years of communism and to have so much weight on their shoulders," he said.
The summit was organised by the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba (ICDC), founded one year ago at the initiative of Vaclav Havel with the help of former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Polish dissident Adam Michnik and former Russian dissident Elena Bonner.
Participants include former presidents Patricio Aylwin of Chile, Luis Alberto Lacalle of Uruguay and Luis Alberto Monge of Costa Rica and former Canadian prime minister Kim Campbell.