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Tito's Widow Living in Troubled Housing

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) -The widow of the former Yugoslavia's Communist dictator, Josip Broz Tito, lives in a decrepit, government-owned house under a leaking roof and without heating, an official said Thursday.
 

Jovanka Broz, Tito's 81-year-old widow whose ordeal began in 1977 when she fell out of the autocratic leader's favor and was forced out of the dictator's sumptuous Belgrade residence.
Rasim Ljajic, Serbia-Montenegro's human rights minister, spoke after visiting Jovanka Broz, 81, who fell out of favor in 1977 and was forced out of the dictator's sumptuous Belgrade residence.

After Tito's death in 1980, his successors put Broz under virtual house arrest and confiscated all her belongings. Later, as Tito's personality cult crumbled and his once glorified role in the country's history came under scrutiny, she mostly remained in seclusion.

Broz continued to shun publicity and lived on a meager state pension as Communism collapsed and the Yugoslav federation broke apart.

Her spacious, government-provided but decaying 1920's villa in Belgrade's plush Dedinje neighborhood is in "catastrophic condition" with a nearly collapsed roof, Ljajic said.

His visit to Broz was the first in many years by a government official.

He pledged government support to repair the residence.

January 19, 2006 9:28 PM

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