Thirty years after his death, Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito's birthday is still celebrated in Belgrade. Every year, on May 25th, thousands of people visit his tomb, still faithful to his ideas.

Thousands flocked to Josip Broz Tito's resting place in Belgrade on Tuesday (May 25th) to mark the former Communist dictator's birthday. Dubbed the architect of the "second Yugoslavia", Tito managed to both unite and separate huge masses of people.

Coinciding with Serbia's Youth Day, for years Tito's birthday was celebrated in the former Yugoslavia by having relay runners carry a baton for weeks, which was then given to the leader on the 25th. This year, relay batons were carried to Belgrade from Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Macedonia. On Tuesday, admirers gave a baton to Tito's grandson, Joska Broz.

Although Tito is viewed as a dictator, he is remembered for the freedoms he allowed his people -- such as open travel -- that other Communist nations did not allow.

The difficult post-war times called for influential and determined leaders. People needed comfort, security and hope. Tito gave the people an idea they could keep fighting for -- the vision of a great republic of united peoples and ethnicities.

Admirers file past Tito's tomb at the House of Flowers in Belgrade on Tuesday (May 25th). [Nikola Barbutov/SETimes

The breakup of the country and today's widespread poverty, has led many to believe the Tito era was better than the present.

Zana Stanica, 85, from Vrsac, came to honour "the great father of the peoples and ethnicities". Forty-five years after the end of World War II, when the bloody disintegration of the former republics started, the idea of a great Yugoslavia which she had believed in nearly all her life became merely a memory. "One never forgets that," she says.

Miodrag Milosevic walked 43km from his village of Umcare to visit the House of Flowers.

"I take it slowly, I'm in no hurry. I started walking at 3pm yesterday, then stopped here and stopped there, and finally I came here," Milosevic told SETimes.

"We remember better times, we keep memories of them and nurture that tradition," Edi Kriz of the Tito's Republic Association from Rijeka, Croatia, told SETimes.

(By Bojana Milovanovic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade -- 26/05/10)

Izvor: SETimes

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