Tito Statue Blown Up in Croatian Hometown
Dec 27, 2004 — ZAGREB, Croatia (Reuters) - An explosive device knocked off the head of a statue of late Yugoslav communist leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito in his native village, state news agency Hina reported Monday.
The blast wrecked the life-size statue of Tito, Hina quoted local police spokesman Josip Janzek as saying.
Tito created Yugoslavia after World War II and ruled with an iron fist until his death in 1980.
State television footage showed the overturned statue on the ground with its head missing in Kumrovec in northern Croatia.
"We think the explosive was wrapped around the head," a local official told the television.
The statue was erected near the house where Tito was born in 1892. After Croatia's independence in 1991, Tito's popularity sank as the young nation sought to revise his historic role and shed more light on the crimes committed by the Yugoslav secret police, which fiercely persecuted anti-communists.
Picture before devastation:
Picture after devastation:
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