Crowds pay respect at ex-Yugo first lady's burial

FILE - In this Friday, May 4, 2001 file photo, Jovanka Broz, the widow of the former Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito leaves a memorial center after a wreath laying ceremony in Belgrade, Serbia. Hospital officials announced on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013, that Jovanka Broz, the widow of former Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito, has died. She was 89. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, file)

Former Yugoslavia’s first lady Jovanka Broz was laid to rest Saturday near the grave of her husband Josip Broz Tito, mourned by a throng who remembered his ex-communist federation as a haven of peace, prosperity and equality more than 20 years after it broke up in bloodshed.

Carrying roses, wreaths and symbols of the past era, many wept as they lined up since early hours Saturday at a memorial complex where the tomb of Tito, the former communist leader, is located.

“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.