They’re building a luxury building which might as well be a victory monument on the site of an army compound NATO bombed in 1999.
Jared Kushner plans to build a luxury hotel on the site of a military headquarters in Belgrade bombed by NATO in 1999
The location for the new hotel in central Belgrade is the General Staff building, a former Yugoslav army headquarters heavily damaged during NATO’s 78-day bombing of Serbia and Montenegro over the Kosovo conflict. Over 500 cilviians were killed by the US-led military bloc throughout the months-long raids, which had no backing from the UN.
The Serbian government last year approved a multimillion-dollar deal with Affinity Global Development, to redevelop the location. The agreement includes a 99-year lease for a three-block area and plans to build a Trump-branded hotel, luxury apartments, offices, shops, and a memorial for bombing victims.
Opposition parties have criticized the deal, while President Aleksandar Vucic and his government have defended it as a move to modernize the capital.
Monday’s protest coincided with Serbia’s Remembrance Day, marking the anniversary of the start of NATO’s bombing campaign on March 24, 1999. Demonstrators gathered around the ruins of the former military complex, demanding the site be restored as a heritage landmark and that redevelopment plans be scrapped. Protesters described the complex as “a monument to NATO aggression” and objected to “gifting it” to American developers.
Videos shared online showed crowds chanting anti-NATO slogans and holding signs that read “f–k NATO and Trump Tower” and “we will never forget,” alongside the dates of the 1999 airstrikes. Protesters waved Serbian flags, as well as banners opposing NATO and the EU. Some demonstrators waved flags from Russia, China, North Korea, and Palestine.
If these are the same protestors who’ve been trying to protest or oust the current government there it seems they’re pretty cool.