Student protest ‘for the General Staff’ in Belgrade – BBC News in Serbian
The students of the Belgrade University who protests the new gathering for 24. March announced, at the NATO bombing of FR Yugoslavia, the state union consisted of Serbia and Montenegro.
They are expensive named « Protest for the General Staff ».
The General Staff buildings and the Ministry of Defense in the center of Belgrade were affected and significantly destroyed during the NATO bombing in 1999. years.
The night between 29. and 30. April was the most difficult until then from the beginning of the NATO bombing.
In addition to the General Staff building of the then army of the FRY (today the Army of Serbia), the building of the then federal police, at about 500 meters from the military command, television tower on Avala, as well as a residential building in Vracar.
Three people were killed and 40 was injured.
Before gathering, students are announced that first in the column will go to Constitutional court In the center of Belgrade, where to submit a request to the Constitutional of the Decision of the Serbian government to take the status of the cultural property.
« This is not just a struggle for one building, this is a struggle to preserve our history, identity and the right to cultural heritage, » writes in posting students in a blockade On Instagram.
At 19.55, they said that he would hold a minute of silence for NATO bombing.
Half an hour earlier and students in Novi Sad, announced a minute of silence near the freedom, one of three over the Grand International Danube River, which is NATO crashed in the second largest city in Serbia.
Students more than four months block faculties and organize protests throughout Serbiaseeking responsibility for the decline of the canopy recently reconstructed railway station.
Although power says that all the requirements are met, students do not accept this, but continue sharing and protests and invite citizens to join them.
Why the General Staff building as a place of protest?
Despite opiencies of some professionals and representatives of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments, in mid-November 2024. year, Government of Serbia she abolished The building of the General Staff and the Ministry of the Status of Cultural Good.
In a place where the General Staff building is now, as announced, a luxury hotel and an apartment complex, which will build a firm Affinity partners Emirate Billionaire Muhamed Alabar and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of American President Donald Tramp.
Bloomberg is wrote That the hotel will get « Tramp ».
Goran Vesić, former Minister of Construction, whom, possible, awaiting trial as One of the defendants for Novi Sad Tragedyhe claimed at the anniversary of the NATO bombing 2024. years that the facility « was never a generalsteb. »
« It’s another of the … It was a federal Secretariat for National Defense and later the Ministry of Defense.
« It was a monument that is Tito (Josip Broz, former, life president of SFR Yugoslavia) wanted to raise his army.
« There are 25 years of ruins, the flowers did not know that they passed, and now they remembered that this was allegedly some symbol. It should not make an affair where the affair does not have anyway », he spoke Vesic.
He then announced that if the Serbian government reached the complex, « insist » to make a memorial complex in that area.
« It will be regulated by the Government of Serbia and there will be a reminder of what happened, » Vesic said.
Just over a month after this statement, Vesic, as the Minister of Construction, with the company Affinity Global Developmentsigned a contract on revitalization of the former Federal Secretariat for National Defense (Funeral).
« The Government of Serbia chose for a partner in this endeavor a reputable American company, which will invest in the revitalization of the former Funny complex, » Vesic said then.
Enjoyed mid-Mar 2024, Kushner is on the social network IX He published the plans of a look of a future hotel and complex at the place of the present General Staff.
The decision of the authorities in Serbia has encountered condemnation of opposition parties, students, as well as experts, domestic and foreign, who requested that the General Staff building is preserved.
In February this year, students in the blockade they appealed To preserve the General Staff buildings and the Ministry of Defense in Kneza Miloša Street.
The Organization of the Institute of Sustainable Energy and Environment (Reams) filed in mid-December 2024. Initiative for Constitutional Assessment and Legality Decisions of the Government of Serbia on termination of the properties of cultural good buildings of the General Staff of the Serbian Army and Montenegro and the Ministry of Defense in Belgrade, the Beta Agency reported.
The parliamentary opposition party an environmental constituency requested the Government of Serbia to put the decision on the General Staff.
This party also had a message for the son of American President Erik Tramp this year, who confirmed that he would cooperate with Serbian authorities around the construction of the hotel in Serbia.
« Tramp families without a rotten bond, they negotiate with the most criminal Serb regime on hotel construction on the foundations of war ruins, which caused Same now, » announced is an environmental uprising.
Aleksandra Zantaki, the United Nations Special Request for Cultural Rights, addressed by the Serbian authorities regarding proceedings that they could endanger the cultural goods and heritage of Belgrade and Serbia, of whom were or are still protected by law.
In an interview with America’s voice December 2024, Zantaki, expert on the rights of the rights of the weekly people, warned that the Serbian government brought illegal decisions at the same time unclaimed with international law and rules regarding the protection of cultural heritage and human rights.
About the General Staff building
Built since 1956. until 1965. year after the project, the University Professor and Academic, the complex, which made up these two buildings, was at the target of NATO between 29. and April 30, as well as 8. and 9. May 1999.
Experts consider it a monumental example of modernist architecture.
Two buildings, opposite the other, with cascades, symbolize the Canyon Canyon where a famous battle for liberation from the Nazi occupier took place during the Second World War.
To date, the complex was not renovated, and the fate of these buildings were discussed for years.
« It is part of the general legacy of modernism from the second half of the century and represents the world-scale in the world, » said earlier in Serbian Ivan Raskovic, professor at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade and the President of the Association of Architects of Serbia.
He described the building as a « dynamic architectural composition » and a line, a unique Belgrade example of the urban complex from the two main parts that depend on each other.
The building is 2005. declared a cultural monumentwhich is determined by protection measures.
After signing the contract with the American company, Vesić is the river that the land remains the property of Serbia, issued at 99 years and that the investor will also have to build a Memorial Center for the Victims of the NATO bombing.
Kushner, however, was talking about the construction of two towers where there will be a luxury hotel, residential, business and retail space.
« The complex is under protection as an architectural heritage so that it is impossible to sell it.
« It cannot be changed its external appearance, according to the protection conditions, it must be restored, and future purpose may be other, but this must be a consequence and result of serious analyzes, » Rašković stories.
More than 350 architects, engineers and other experts, compiled Declaration on the fate of the Belgrade Fair and General Staff and require, among other things, that « the General Staff buildings and the Ministry of Defense Restore and Sanira », but also « preserves its administrative administrative purpose. »
The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts objected to the plans of the Government and called on the complex that the « cultural status of cultural property is extremely important ».
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