Michal Kováč sworn in as president, March 2, 1993. (source: TASR)
Michal Kováč is now part of Slovakia's history.
He was instrumental in this country's birth, but even though the rest of the world praised the 1993 break-up of Czechoslovakia as a non-violent, 'velvet' divorce, what followed was hardly velvety.
Modern Slovakia was delivered by painful caesarean section and the wound has taken many years to heal, leaving behind a deep scar.
That pain was written in the fate and in the face of the late president.
