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Last Yugoslav King Reburied Near Belgrade


The coffins of the Karadjordjevic family, former Yugoslavia's royal family, lay inside Belgrade's Congregational Church during a religious ceremony before being reburied in Oplenac.
The coffins of the Karadjordjevic family, former Yugoslavia's royal family, lay inside Belgrade's Congregational Church during a religious ceremony before being reburied in Oplenac.
The last king of Yugoslavia is being reburied in Serbia, 43 years after his death in the United States.

Many leading Serbian officials, including President Tomislav Nikolic and Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, attended the ceremony on May 26, which also included reburying the remains of Queen Marija and Queen Aleksandra, the mother and wife of the late king.

Petar II Karadjordjevic was the third and last king of Yugoslavia, taking the throne in 1934 at the age of 11 following the infamous assassination in France of his father, King Aleksandar I.

He fled an anti-Nazi coup in 1941 and was later prevented from returning to Yugoslavia by the communist government.

He died in 1970 in the United States at the age of 47 after a failed liver transplant. He was buried in an Orthodox church in Illinois, becoming the only European monarch buried in the United States.

He is being laid to rest in St. George's Church in Oplenac, outside Belgrade.

Petar II's son, Aleksandar Karadjordjevic, returned to Serbia from Britain in 2001 and has called for the restoration of a constitutional monarchy.

Based on reporting by AFP and the BBC

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