After Tito's Death
On 27 July 1980, not even three months after Tito's death, men broke into the residence at 15 Užička where she was living. They ransacked the place, confiscated her property and forcedly moved her to 75 Bulevar Mira, where she was placed under house arrest. Her younger sister Nada, who was present while all of this was happening, was threatened with death if she mentioned what she saw to anyone.
In a letter Jovanka wrote in 1985 to Yugoslavia'a Federal Assembly, she described the ordeal:
- "They rummaged through my belongings for 11 hours, before taking it all. I was all alone when they came because the entire staff had been sent away somewhere. When they started breaking down the front door I called my sister to come. I was surrounded by 10 unknown men and I was afraid. I was even afraid for my life. As they were leaving, that man named Nikolić came up to me and threatened my sister would be killed if she speaks about what she saw".
Ever since then, Jovanka has stayed away from the spotlight. Recently, in a rare 2003 interview, she absolved Tito of responsibility for what happened to her, saying he did everything possible to save her life. In the same interview, she singled out Stane Dolanc ("he hated the fact I'm Serbian") and General Nikola Ljubičić ("I immediately saw through his posturing and recognized his struggle for power") as the main reasons why her life hung in the balance during late 1970s and early 1980s.
Read more about this topic: Jovanka Broz
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“And so, standing before the aforesaid officiator, the two swore that at every other time of their lives till death took them, they would assuredly believe, feel, and desire precisely as they had believed, felt, and desired during the few preceding weeks. What was as remarkable as the undertaking itself was the fact that nobody seemed at all surprised at what they swore.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)