| Partof: | the breakup of Yugoslavia |
| Event: | Funeral of Josip Broz Tito |
| Location: | Dedinje, Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia |
| Participants: | Yugoslav officials and dignitaries from 128 foreign countries |
The funeral of Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia and President of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, was held on 8 May 1980, four days after his death on 4 May. His funeral drew many statesmen from around the globe, from Western, Eastern and Non-Aligned countries.[1] [2] The attendees included four kings, six princes, 22 prime ministers, 31 presidents, and 47 ministers of foreign affairs. In total, 128 countries out of the 154 UN members at the time were represented.[3] Also present were delegates from seven multilateral organizations, six movements and 40 political parties.
Tito had become increasingly ill throughout 1979. On 7 January and again on 11 January 1980, Tito was admitted to the University Medical Centre in Ljubljana, the capital city of SR Slovenia, with circulation problems in his legs. His left leg was amputated soon afterwards due to arterial blockages, and he died of gangrene at the Medical Centre Ljubljana on 4 May 1980 at 3:05 pm, three days short of his 88th birthday. The Plavi voz, Tito's personal train, brought his body to Belgrade where it lay in state at the Federal Parliament building until the funeral.
As Tito had been viewed as the central unifying figure of culturally, religiously diverse and throughout times ethnically antagonistic nations of Yugoslavia, his death is considered to be one of key catalysts for the dissolution and destruction of the Yugoslav state a mere decade later.
By 1979, Tito's health had declined rapidly, mainly due to an arterial embolism in his left leg. This embolism was a complication of his diabetes, which he had had for many years. In that year, he participated in the Havana Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement and spent New Year's Eve in his residence in Karađorđevo. Throughout the televised event, Tito remained seated while exchanging greetings, causing concern to the watching audience. During this time Vila Srna was built for his use near Morović in the event of his recovery.[4]
The first circulation problems in his left leg begun in the second half of December 1979. Tito refused to undergo any diagnostic procedure prior to the new year celebration. On January 3, 1980, Tito was admitted to the Ljubljana University Medical Centre for tests on blood vessels in his leg. Two days later, after the angiography, he was discharged to his residence in Brdo Castle near Kranj, with a recommendation for further intensive treatment. Angiography revealed that Tito's superficial femoral artery and Achilles tendon artery were clogged. The medical council consisted of eight Yugoslav doctors, Michael DeBakey from the United States and Marat Knyazev from the Soviet Union.[5]
Following the advice of DeBakey and Knyazev, the medical team attempted an arterial bypass. The first surgery was done in the night of January 12.[6] At first, the operation appeared to have been a success, but after few hours, it became clear that the operation was not successful. Due to severe damage to the arteries, which led to the interruption of blood flow and accelerated tissue devitalization of the left leg, Tito's left leg was amputated on January 20,[7] to prevent the spread of gangrene. When Tito was told about the required amputation, he resisted it as long as possible. Finally, after meeting with his sons, Žarko and Mišo, he agreed to the amputation. After the amputation, Tito's health improved and he began rehabilitation. On 28 January, he was transferred from the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery to the Department of Cardiology. In the first days of February his health had improved enough to allow him to perform some of his regular duties.
By the beginning of January 1980, however, it became clear that Tito's life was in grave danger and Yugoslav political leadership secretly began preparations for his funeral. Tito's wish was that he be buried in the House of Flowers on Dedinje hill, that overlooks Belgrade. Moma Martinovic, a director for Radio Television Belgrade, was summoned by Dragoljub Stavrev, a vice president in the federal government, to devise plans for broadcasting the funeral.
In late February, Tito's health suddenly took a turn to the worst. He suffered from kidney failure and in March, his heart and lungs began to fail and in late April, he suffered a stroke, whilst he was still in the hospital.
Josip Broz Tito died in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the University Medical Centre, Ljubljana on May 4, 1980, at 3:05 pm, due to complications of gangrene, three days before his 88th birthday. He died on the seventh floor, in a small room on the southeast corner. A commemorative inscription in the main hall later read "Pot do osvoboditve človeka bo še dolga, a bila bi daljša da ni živel Tito" ("The fight for peoples liberation will be a long one, but would have been longer if Tito never lived"). That inscription was later removed. Immediately upon learning of Tito's death, a full extraordinary session of both the Presidency of Yugoslavia and the Presidency of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia was held in Belgrade starting at 6:00 pm, at which Tito's death was formally declared via a joint statement:
After the declaration was read, Stevan Doronjski (President of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia) said, "Eternal glory be to the memory of our great leader and father of the revolution, President of Yugoslavia and General Secretary and President of the League, our comrade Josip Broz Tito."
At the same meeting, by the 1974 Yugoslav Constitution, as amended, it was decided that Lazar Koliševski, Vice President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia, would temporarily take the office of the President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia, and that Cvijetin Mijatović, a former member of the Presidency of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, would take Koliševski's place as state vice president. Following the LCY Statute as amended, former chairman of Presidency of Central Committee of League of Communists of Yugoslavia Stevan Doronjski assumed the post of President of the Presidency of the Central Committee of League of Communists of Yugoslavia. Immediately afterwards, the Federal Executive Council (government of Yugoslavia) decided to announce a week of national mourning across the country formally and cancelled all entertainment, cultural and sporting events.[8] [9] Many countries around the world declared periods of national mourning. North Korea,[10] Egypt,[11] Algeria, Tanzania,[12] and Burma[12] announced seven days of mourning; Pakistan,[12] Cyprus, and Ghana announced four days of mourning; Jordan,[11] India, Iraq, Cuba, Guinea and Zambia announced three days of mourning; Angola announced two days of mourning; and Sri Lanka declared one day of mourning.
Tito's death was sudden and unexpected for Yugoslavian citizens who were minding their usual weekend activities. In the evening of the key day, TV stations were broadcasting normal programming on television until it was interrupted with a black screen for 30 seconds. After that, Miodrag Zdravković, newsreader of Radio Television Belgrade, read the following statement live:
The same announcement was read out on the TV stations of each constituent republic in their respective languages.
On Sunday afternoons, Yugoslav Television often broadcast association football games of the Yugoslav First League. That day, there was a league match in Split between NK Hajduk Split and FK Crvena Zvezda. When the match was in its 41st minute, three men entered the Poljud Stadium pitch, signaling the referee to stop the match. Ante Skataretiko, the president of Hajduk, took the microphone and announced Tito's death. What followed were sudden scenes of mass crying with some players such as Zlatko Vujović collapsing down to the ground and weeping. Players of both teams and referees aligned to stand in a moment of silence. Once the stadium announcer said "May he rest in peace", the entire stadium of 50,000 football fans spontaneously started to sing (Druže Tito mi ti se kunemo, da sa tvoga puta ne skrenemo).[13] The match was halted, then replayed later in the month.
Grief for the statesman's death was largely based on his place in the Yugoslav political scene. He had led the resistance movement against Axis occupation in the Second World War, helped create a socialist federation principled on 'brotherhood and unity' of Yugoslav nations, stood for self-determination and political independence of post-war Yugoslavia from both Western and Eastern Bloc,[14] co-initiated the Non-Aligned Movement at the time of peak tensions of possible nuclear warfare between the blocs; all of which contributed to his general popularity in the country and abroad.
Tito's blue train brought an empty coffin to the capital Belgrade, due to the bad condition of his deceased body. Tito's remains were instead transferred to Belgrade by a military helicopter.
Tito's funeral drew many statesmen to Belgrade. Two notably absent statesmen were President of the United States Jimmy Carter and First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Fidel Castro. His death came just as the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan had ended the American-Soviet détente. Yugoslavia, though a communist state, was non-aligned during the Cold War due to the Tito-Stalin split in 1948.
After learning that Chinese Communist Party chairman Hua Guofeng would lead the Chinese delegation, the ailing Soviet general secretary Leonid Brezhnev decided to lead his nation's delegation. In order to avoid meeting Brezhnev whilst in the middle of his campaign for the 1980 United States presidential election, Carter opted to send his mother Lilian Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale as heads of the US delegation. After realizing that leaders of all Warsaw Pact nations would attend the funeral, Carter's decision was criticized by presidential candidate George H. W. Bush as a sign that the United States "inferentially slams Yugoslavs at time that country has pulled away from Soviet Union".[15] Carter visited Yugoslavia later in June 1980 and made a visit to Tito's grave.[16] [17]
Helmut Schmidt, chancellor of West Germany, was highly active at the funeral, meeting with Brezhnev, East Germany's Erich Honecker, and Poland's Edward Gierek. British prime minister Margaret Thatcher sought to rally world leaders in order to harshly condemn the Soviet invasion. While she was in Belgrade, she held talks with Kenneth Kaunda, Schmidt, Francesco Cossiga, and Nicolae Ceaușescu. Brezhnev met with Kim Il Sung and Honecker. James Callaghan, leader of the British Labour Party, explained his presence in Belgrade as an attempt to warm relations between his party and Yugoslav communists, which was severed more than a decade ago after dissident Milovan Đilas was welcomed by Jennie Lee, Minister for the Arts under Harold Wilson. Mondale avoided the Soviets, ignoring Brezhnev while passing close to him. Soviet and Chinese delegations also avoided each other.
The pomp and scale of the funeral had been widely documented and the event was a source of pride for the country for years to come. On the fifteenth anniversary of his death in 1995, the Croatian newspaper Arkzin noted that "turbulent times still do not allow for a truly historical assessment of his stature and achievements, but the appraisal which the world showed those days in May 1980, confirms that small nations and small states may produce world giants."[18]
During the funeral, Yasser Arafat tapped on the shoulder of Margaret Thatcher, after which she swung and shook his hand. She stated that she could never forgive herself for shaking his hand.[19]
Tito was interred twice on May 8. The first interment was for cameras and dignitaries. The grave was shallow with only a 200kg (400lb) replica of the sarcophagus. The second interment was held privately during the night. His coffin was removed, and the shallow grave was deepened. The coffin was enclosed with a copper mask and interred again into a much deeper grave which was sealed with cement and topped with a 9-ton sarcophagus. Communist officials were afraid that someone might steal the corpse, as had happened to Charlie Chaplin. However, the 9 ton sarcophagus had to be put in place with a crane, which would make the funeral unattractive.
In stark contrast to the pageantry of the funeral, Tito's tomb was constructed of marble with a simple inscription that states JOSIP BROZ - TITO 1892–1980. It did not incorporate a red star or any emblem linked to communism. Historians stated that the burial location, which was the garden of the place he lived during the post-war years more popularly known as the House of Flowers, was selected according to Tito's wishes.[20] The House of Flowers, together with the Museum of Yugoslavia, has since become a tourist destination and landmark of Belgrade visited by millions of people.
Source: Book: Mirosavljev, Radoslav . Titova poslednja bitka (Tito's Last Battle). sh . 1981 . Narodna knjiga . Beograd . 262–264.
State delegations of those countries were led by their respective heads of state:
Chadli Bendjedid (President), Mohammed Seddik Benyahia (Minister of Foreign Affairs)
Rudolf Kirchschläger (President), Bruno Kreisky (Federal Chancellor), Willibald Pahr (Foreign Minister)
Ziaur Rahman (President), Muhammad Shamsul Haque (Minister of Foreign Affairs)
King Baudouin, Wilfried Martens (Prime Minister), Henri Simonet (Minister of Foreign Affairs)
Edward Schreyer (Governor General), Jean Marchand (Speaker of the Senate)
FinlandUrho Kekkonen (President), Paavo Väyrynen (Minister of Foreign Affairs)
Konstantinos Tsatsos (President), Agamemnon Gratzios (Chief of the National Defence General Staff)
Ahmed Sékou Touré (President), Moussa Diakité (Foreign minister)
Luís Cabral (President), Constantino Teixeira (Commissar of Internal Affairs)
IrelandPatrick Hillery (President), George Colley (Tánaiste)
Sandro Pertini (President), Francesco Cossiga (Prime Minister), Oddo Biasini (Minister of Culture)
King Hussein, Abdelhamid Sharaf (Prime Minister)
Spyros Kyprianou (President), Nicos A. Rolandis (Foreign Minister)
Kim Il Sung (General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and President), Ho Dam (Foreign Minister), O Jin-u (Minister of Defence)
Democratic Kampuchea: Khieu Samphan (President of the State Presidium and Prime Minister), Teng Sang (Vice President)
LuxembourgJean (Grand Duke), Gaston Thorn (Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister)
Moussa Traoré (President), Alioune Blondin Beye (Foreign Minister)
Erich Honecker (General Secretary of the Central Committee and the Chairman of the State Council), Oskar Fischer (Minister of Foreign Affairs), Manfred Flegel (Deputy Chairmen of the Council of Ministers)
Karl Carstens (President), Helmut Schmidt (Chancellor), Hans-Dietrich Genscher (Foreign Minister)
King Olav V, Odvar Nordli (Prime Minister)
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (President), Riaz Piracha (Foreign Secretary)
Aristides Royo (President), Carlos Osores (Foreign Minister)
Edward Gierek (First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party), Wojciech Jaruzelski (Minister of National Defence)
António Ramalho Eanes (President), Francisco de Sá Carneiro (Prime Minister)
San MarinoPietro Chiaruzzi and Primo Marani (Captains Regent)
Leonid Brezhnev (General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet), Andrei Gromyko (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
King Carl XVI Gustaf, Ola Ullsten (Minister for Foreign Affairs)
Hafez al-Assad (President), Abdul Halim Khaddam (Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister)
Julius Nyerere (President), Benjamin Mkapa (Minister of Foreign Affairs)
Gnassingbé Eyadéma (President)
Zambia: Kenneth Kaunda (President), Wilson M. Chakulya (Minister of Foreign Affairs)State delegations of those countries were headed by their heads of government or vice-heads of state:
Hua Guofeng (Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and Premier of China), Ji Pengfei (Secretary General of the State Council)
Hosni Mubarak (Vice President)
Raymond Barre (Prime Minister), Jean François-Poncet (Minister of Foreign Affairs)
Joseph W.S. deGraft-Johnson (Vice-President), Isaac Chinebuah (Minister for Foreign Affairs), William Ofori Atta (Government Minister)
Indira Gandhi (Prime Minister)
Masayoshi Ōhira (Prime Minister), Yasure Katoi (Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs)
NetherlandsPrince Claus (Prince consort), Prince Bernhard (former Prince consort), Dries van Agt (Prime Minister), Chris van der Klaauw (Minister of Foreign Affairs)
Pedro Richter Prada (Prime Minister)
Adolfo Suárez (Prime Minister), Marcelino Oreja (Minister of Foreign Affairs)
Süleyman Demirel (Prime Minister), Hayrettin Erkmen (Foreign Minister)
Prince Philip (Consort of the Queen), Margaret Thatcher (Prime Minister), Lord Carrington (Foreign Secretary), Fitzroy Maclean (wartime British liaison to Yugoslav Partisans, personal friend of Tito)
Walter Mondale (Vice President), Lillian Gordy Carter (mother of President Jimmy Carter) and W. Averell Harriman (former Governor of New York)
Qadi Abdel (Vice President)
Robert Mugabe (Prime Minister)
Delegations of those countries were headed by their deputy heads of state, deputy heads of government or their foreign ministers:
AustraliaAndrew Peacock (Minister for Foreign Affairs)
Gaston Aroas Levi (Chancellor)
José Ferraz de Rosa (Army General, State Minister, and General Chief of Staff), Agripino Maia (Foreign Minister)
Jean Keutcha (Foreign Minister)
Carlos Rafael Rodríguez (Vice President of the Council of State), Isidoro Malmierca Peoli (Foreign Minister)
Henrik (Prince Consort), Kjeld Olesen (Foreign Minister)
Ptolemy Reid (Deputy Prime Minister)
Sadegh Ghotbzadeh (Minister of Foreign Affairs)
Harold Edward Water (Foreign Minister)
Enrique Olivares Santana (Secretary of the Interior), Luis M. Farías (President of the Chamber of Deputies)
NigeriaIshaya Audu (Minister of Foreign Affairs), Joseph Wayas (President of the Senate)
Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann (Foreign Minister)
Brian Talboys (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs)
Jacques Hodoul (Minister for Foreign Affairs)
Abdul Cader Shahul Hameed (Minister of External Affairs)
Pierre Aubert (Foreign Minister)
Thanat Khoman (Deputy Prime Minister)
Otema Allimadi (Foreign Minister)
José Zambrano Velasco (Minister of Foreign Affairs)
Huỳnh Tấn Phát (Deputy Prime Minister)
State delegations of those countries were headed by government ministers, ambassadors or royal house members:
Sokrat Plaka (ambassador to Yugoslavia)
Ambrósio Lukoki (Minister of Education and Member of the Politburo of MPLA), Afonso Van-Dunem (Member of the Central Committee of MPLA)
Alberto Rodríguez Varela (Minister of Justice)
BotswanaA. V. Kgarebe (High Commissioner to the United Kingdom)
Reni Nkonkengurute (Member of the Politburo and Presidium of the Central Committee of the Union for National Progress, Minister for Presidency affairs)
General Mbale (Minister of Internal Affairs)
Gustavo Balcázar Monzón (Colombia Ambassador to the United Kingdom)
Costa RicaFernando Aldman (Minister of Economy)
Mario Aleman (Sub-secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Abaga Julian Esono (Ambassador to France)
Jean Robert Fungu (Ambassador to Yugoslavia)
Ingvi Sigurður Ingvarsson (Ambassador to Sweden, non-resident Ambassador to Yugoslavia)
K. Nalobamba (State Minister), Tousagnon Benoit (vice-president of the National Assembly)
K. G. Hill (Ambassador to Geneva, non-resident Ambassador to Yugoslavia)
J. H. Okvanyo (Trade minister)
Sheikh Abdullah al Jaber (Special emissary of Emir Jaber al Ahmad)
Ali el Khalil (Minister of Finance)
Robert Kvele Kennedy (Ambassador to Rome, non-resident Ambassador to Yugoslavia)
LiechtensteinWalter Oehry (Government Minister)
Ahmed Zaki (Permanent Representatives to the UN)
Abdul Taib Mahmud (Minister of Defence)
Mohamme Ulg el-Hussein (Minister)
Dej Ould Sidi (President of Parliament), Mohammed Doniri (Minister of Supplies)
NigerMahamane Karmou (Ambassador to USSR, non-resident Ambassador to Yugoslavia)
Fahad bin Mahmoud Al-Said (Under-secretary of judicial affairs)
Leon Ma. Guerrero (Ambassador to Yugoslavia)
Jules Kanadra (Ambassador to Moscow, non-resident Ambassador to Yugoslavia)
Brata da Coste (Member of the Coordinating council of the MLSTP/PSD, Minister for Planning)
Maggat Lo (President of the Economic-social committee of the Parliament), Mohammed Li (Government Minister)
Philip Faboe (Secretary of State)
David Marshall (Ambassador to France)
M. S. Muti (Member of the Politburo and Secretary of the Central Committee of the Yemeni Socialist Party), A. R. Ratib (Member of the Politburo)
Trinidad and TobagoJames O'Neil (Ambassador to Belgium, non-resident Ambassador to Yugoslavia)
Sadok Mokaddem (President of the Assembly, and Member of the Politburo of the Socialist Destourian Party) and Habib Bourguiba, Jr.
Tiemoko Marc Garango (Ambassador to West Germany, non-resident Ambassador to Yugoslavia)
Walter Ravenna (Minister of National Defence)
Achille Silvestrini (Secretary of the Council for Public Affairs of the Church)
Nzondomyo a' Dokpe Lingo (President of the National Assembly)
Chedli Klibi (Secretary-General)
Shridath Ramphal (Secretary-General)
Emiel van Lennep (Secretary-General)
Kurt Waldheim (Secretary-General), P. N. Dhar
Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow (Director-General)
The funeral was broadcast live by many countries on their state television channels. In West Germany, it was aired on the first program. Austrian television featured the film "Memories of President Tito" for an hour, followed by a 3-hour broadcast of the funeral. In the U.S., all three major television networks covered the funeral. Both French main channels directly broadcast the burial. The same situation occurred in Belgium, and British television aired almost 4 hours of the ceremony. The Australian network covered the entire ceremony. In total, 44 countries broadcast Tito's funeral.[22]
Algeria
Austria
Bangladesh
Belgium
Canada
Greece
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Italy
Jordan
Cyprus
Mali
Malta
Norway
Pakistan
Panama
Portugal
Sweden
Togo
Cape Verde
China
Egypt
France
India
Indonesia
Japan
Spain
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States
Zimbabwe
Brazil
Cameroon
Cuba
Denmark
Guyana
Mauritius
Mexico
Nicaragua
New Zealand
Seychelles
Sri Lanka
Switzerland
Thailand
Uganda
Argentina
Burundi
Colombia
Ecuador
Equatorial Guinea
Gabon
Iceland
Jamaica
Kenya
Kuwait
Lebanon
Liberia
Maldives
Malaysia
Mauritania
Morocco
Oman
Philippines
Rwanda
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Tunisia
Uruguay