The widow of former Yugoslav communist leader Marshal Tito has received a state funeral in Serbia.
Jovanka Broz, who lived virtually forgotten for many years after war tore apart the socialist federation built by her husband, was buried today.
Broz died of heart failure in a Belgrade hospital last weekend, at the age of 88.
Thousands of mourners, many from other former Yugoslav republics, gave Broz a final salute as her coffin, covered with red flowers, was carried into the “House of Flowers” compound where she was buried next to her husband Josip Broz Tito.
A World War Two veteran, she had held the rank of a lieutenant colonel in the Yugoslav army and two medals for gallantry in combat. At her funeral she received full military honours, including a guard of honour by her former war comrades.
“Jovanka was our first lady, our pride and the representative of our state ... an important part of our history that we have discarded and forgotten,” Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said in a eulogy.
After Tito’s death in 1980, Broz lived largely in isolation, shut away in a crumbling state-owned villa in the Serbian capital without a passport or ID.
She looked on as nationalist tensions tore Yugoslavia apart in the 1990s, spawning seven new states during a decade of war and ethnic cleansing that killed more than 125,000 people.
Nationalists chipped away at Tito’s reputation and legacy, deconstructing the personality cult built around him in an effort to undermine the mantra of ‘Brotherhood and Unity’ that had underpinned the old Yugoslavia.
Croatian-born Broz was finally granted a Serbian passport in 2009.
“Today, we don’t just bid farewell to Jovanka Broz, we bid farewell to Tito’s era,” Serbia’s prime minister Ivica Dacic said in a speech. “Today marks the departure of the last icon of the former Yugoslavia.”
While vilified during the nationalist euphoria that followed the bloody breakup in the early 1990s, Yugoslavia has since regained in popularity, even among the younger generations that were born after the country disintegrated — a phenomenon explained by the brutal reality of postwar and post-communist transition.
Tito’s grave has been a pilgrimage point for the admirers of the former Yugoslavia for years. They come in buses each May from all over the former country to celebrate Tito’s birthday or mourn his death in 1980.
Sergej Nikolov traveled all the way from Macedonia, the southernmost former Yugoslav republic. “I have always been and always will be a Yugoslav,” Nikolov said. “That is the only country I recognise.”
Although he ruled with a heavy hand, Tito kept close ties with the West and allowed some freedoms — such as free travel — to the Yugoslavs. The communist state also provided job security and relative prosperity to its citizens, who later have found transition to market economy hard to bear.
Broz lived in isolation as the six-member federation fell apart in early 1990s in a series of ethnic conflicts. Seven independent nations emerged after warfare that left millions homeless.
Broz’s rights were only partially restored after 2000, when a pro-democracy Serbian government moved to improve her status. Mr Dacic said at the funeral that “it is time to admit we committed a sin.”
Ivan Sarcevic (64) from the northern Serbian town of Subotica, said: “It’s a great shame how this country treated her, nothing can redeem us.”
Agencies