(AFP) – Hundreds of people staged a demonstration in Belgrade on Tuesday against the planned demolition of a former army headquarters to make way for a luxury hotel complex that US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner wants to build. The student-led demonstration came four days after the Serbian parliament voted a special law which classifies the redevelopment of the bombed out Yugoslav Army headquarters an urgent project, giving it faster access to permits.
The plan by Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump and a former senior advisor to Donald Trump, is sensitive as the 60-year-old headquarters was hit during US-led NATO bombing strikes to end the 1998-99 Kosovo war. Kushner’s Affinity Partners company signed a 99-year lease for the site — opposite the main government building and foreign ministry — in 2024. Authorities had ended its protected status as a “cultural asset” shortly before.
The Affinity Partners project was suspended in May and an investigation started over suspicions that documents used to lift the site’s protection had been falsified. “This government has decided to pass a special law to legalise its crime,” student demonstrator Valentina Moravcevic told N1 television during the rally. “They can now legally destroy this building, but we will not allow it. We are here today to give them a warning and to tell them that our history and cultural heritage are important to us,” she added.
A second partner in the project is the UAE-based property developer Eagle Hills, which has been involved since late 2015 in large-scale redevelopment along the Sava River, a tributary of the Danube, a project that has drawn public and opposition criticism. President Aleksandar Vucic is already battling widespread protests since a deadly railway station disaster in November last year that many Serbians blame on corruption.
© 2024 AFP
