OPLENAC, Serbia: Serbian government officials and hundreds of mourners attended the reburial of King Petar II Karadjordjevic and other members of the deposed Yugoslavian royal family yesterday decades after their deaths in exile — an event seen as an important act of national reconciliation.
The bodies of Petar, his wife Queen Aleksandra, mother Queen Maria and brother Prince Andrej, had been exhumed from cemeteries in the United States, Britain and Greece.
The four coffins draped in Serbian royal flags and escorted by Serb army guardsmen were transferred to the Oplenac royal chapel in the town of Topola.
Petar succeeded his father King Aleksandar in 1934, who was assassinated in Marseilles, France, by Croatian and Bulgarian nationalists.
After Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941, Petar fled the country and spent the most of World War Two in exile in Britain. After the war, Petar was proclaimed a traitor by the communist leadership, which also abolished the monarchy.
His property was confiscated and he remained exiled until death in 1970 in the US. President Tomislav Nikolic, Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, Patriarch Irinej and the head of Serb Orthodox church were among those attending the state funeral. The ceremony was an act of reconciliation between Serbs who supported the royal family or communist forces during World War Two.
Reuters
