Posted on 10/01/2002 8:00:10 AM PDT by Leonora
Ashes of late ambassador are buried in Belgrade
BELGRADE (Kyodo) Relatives and friends of the late Japanese ambassador to Croatia, Keisuke Oba, buried his ashes in Belgrade on Friday. Oba, considered a great lover of Yugoslavia, died in the Philippines last month.
About 100 people, including many of Oba's Serbian friends, attended the burial ceremony at the central Belgrade cemetery.
Oba died in the Philippine island of Cebu on Aug. 29 at age 67 after battling a brain tumor. He had told his family he wanted to be buried in Yugoslavia.
It is extremely rare for a Japanese diplomat to be buried overseas, according to the Japanese Embassy in Belgrade.
Oba, a graduate of Belgrade University, joined Japan's Foreign Ministry in 1974.
Fluent in Serbo-Croat, he served as a diplomat in the various republics of the former Yugoslavia for about 20 years.
He was ambassador to Croatia before his retirement and one of the few diplomats to have closely witnessed the civil war and disintegration of Yugoslavia.
Oba's eldest son, Naoki, lives in Cebu and nursed his father during his illness. He said his father spoke only in Serbian -- not a word of Japanese or English -- for the last four weeks of his life.
"I suppose this is how much he loved Yugoslavia," Naoki said.
A Japanese ambassador surly has access to the diplomatic salons of other major powers, and this man was a witness to all the dirty work that went behind the disintegration of Yugoslavia.
I can't otherwise explain his unchanged love of Serbs and Belgrade. An honorable man like this wouldn't want to be buried in a country that condones genocides and massacres.
Exactly, this in my book honors both the Ambassador and the Serbs...... speaks volumes.
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