Many in Serbia see the site – a former army headquarters damaged in a 1999 Nato bombing campaign – as a tribute to those who died
Thousands of people have protested against a plan to tear down a former army headquarters in the Serbian capital Belgrade to make way for a luxury hotel complex, as part of a project linked to US president Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The rally added to a spate of anti-government protests putting pressure on president Aleksandar Vucic triggered by the collapse a year ago of a railway station roof that killed 16 people.
Serbian lawmakers passed legislation on Friday that would allow faster administrative procedures for Kushner’s Affinity Global Development firm to build the hotel, apartments, shops and offices on the site of the former Yugoslav army headquarters.
Many Serbs see the old headquarters, which were damaged in a 1999 Nato bombing campaign during the Kosovo conflict, as a tribute to those who died and a monument to Yugoslav-era modernist architecture, and they opposed the signing of a 99-year lease deal with Affinity Global Development last year.
