June 16 (Bloomberg) -- Vaclav Havel, the Czech who led his country’s “Velvet Revolution” 20 years ago, described Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a man possessed and warned he could “damage a lot of people.”

“The Iranian president does not represent any religious nor national or other ideas,” Havel, 72, said in a Bloomberg News interview in Prague today. “In my eyes he is a man possessed. Unfortunately we are living at a time when a man possessed could easily inflict damage to a lot of people, due to modern technology.”

As many as eight Iranians were killed and 25 wounded yesterday when security forces fired on protesters, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported, citing state radio. Demonstrators have taken to the streets for four successive days following Ahmadinejad’s re-election, which has been disputed by the opposition.

“It is important that the West should not consider oil to be more important than human rights,” added Havel, who served as president of Czechoslovakia from 1990 until 1992 and then led the Czech Republic from 1993 until 2003.

Britain, the U.S. and other nations should not be seen to interfere in Iran’s internal affairs, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the BBC today.

‘Fall into the Trap’

“I spoke to Mrs. Clinton, the Secretary of State, and we are all determined not to fall into the trap of being seen to back one side or the other,” Miliband said.

The West could consider embargoes or boycotts aimed at the Iranian government, as long as they do not harm the Iranian people, Havel said.

Iran does “take public opinion into account. It is the same in all dictatorships, whether communist, Islamic, or other,” he added.

After fighting communism as a dissident writer for three decades, Havel became an international symbol for the end of totalitarian regimes in the former Soviet bloc after the 1989 Velvet Revolution in then-Czechoslovakia swept him into the country’s highest office.

‘Serious Concern’

Josef Havlas, a Czech diplomat and a representative for the European Union, was summoned today to the Iranian Foreign Ministry after the EU said it had “serious concern” about the use of force against demonstrators, according to a report from the state-run Iranian Students’ News Agency. The Czech Republic holds the EU’s rotating six-month presidency.

“Neither the European Union nor any other country are in a position to have the right to make rude and interfering comments against Iran especially on our glorious election” they told him, according to the report.

Iran finds some of the remarks made by western countries and statements issued “unacceptable and condemns them.”

EU foreign ministers yesterday called on Iran to probe charges Ahmadinejad’s re-election was rigged and to allow peaceful protests.

The EU intends to engage with Iran’s government “on the basis of mutual respect but it requires Iran to recognize and act urgently on its responsibilities and obligations,” the EU ministers said in a statement yesterday from Luxembourg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Dudikova in Prague at adudikova@bloomberg.net; Peter S. Green in New York at psgreen@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 16, 2009 14:10 EDT