party (SKJ) and prohibited from participating in public functions. Yugoslav authorities stopped short of criminally prosecuting Ranković through a trial. The official reason given was that the alleged conspiracy involving his associates never materialised and that Ranković had earned respectability due to his participation in the development of the country. Edina Bećirević states that the actual reason was Ranković had extensive surveillance accumulated by his secret police that could compromise a large portion of the Yugoslav leadership, even Tito. As such, prosecuting Ranković was unfeasible. The events around the dismissal of Ranković were depicted by the communist government as case of "Greater Serbian hegemony". Following his dismissal, the government repression under Ranković in Kosovo toward Albanians was revealed and his patriotic pursuit to secure the region was debunked. Albanians gained wider freedom in Yugoslavia as a consequence of the downfall of Ranković. The removal of Ranković was positively received by Albanians and some other Yugoslavs, whereas it generated concerns within Yugoslavia that Serbs would become vulnerable and lack protection in Kosovo. Tito made a visit to Kosovo (spring 1967) and admitted to mistakes having been made in previous years. Reforms decentralising government and greater powers for the republics were enacted after the Ranković era and Tito changed his view and stated that recognition of Muslims and their national identity should occur. Serb nationalists within the communist party warned Tito that the removal of Ranković was an unforgivable offense to Serbs in the country as he represented Serbia. Ranković thereafter for the duration of his life kept a low profile until his death. Fall from power His fall from power marked the beginning of the end of a centralized power structure of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia over the country and the social and political separatist and autonomist movements that would culminate in the Croatian Spring and the newly de-centralized Yugoslavia that emerged from the 1971 constitutional reforms and later the 1974 Constitution. Death Ranković retired to Dubrovnik, where he died on 19 August 1983 after suffering a second heart attack. On Belgrade airport his coffin was awaited only by the representatives of the Veteran's Union (SUBNOR). While he was in the hospital, someone broke into Ranković's house and stole all of his medals, so his family began to gather medals from his former war comrades to display them at the funeral, but in the end SUBNOR provided the replacement