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Protests are planned in Serbia against a real estate project financed by Trump’s son-in-law Kushner
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Opposition groups in Serbia are planning protests against a real estate development project that will be financed by Donald Trump’s son-in-law’s company, Jared Kushneron the site of the former Serbian army headquarters destroyed in a US-led NATO bombing campaign in 1999.
The Serbian government earlier this week signed an agreement with a company related to Kushner to lease land for 99 years in the center of Belgrade for the “revitalization” of bombed buildings. Kushner confirmed reports that his company plans to finance the $500 million project. It would feature a high-rise hotel, a luxury apartment complex, offices and shops.
“Economic progress in Serbia over the past decade has been impressive,” Kushner said in a statement confirming approval of the deal. “This development will further elevate Belgrade into the premier international destination it is becoming.”
Government officials welcomed the project, but opposition groups and many members of the general public spoke out against it.
For many, the site of the bombed army command building is a powerful symbol of Serbia’s resistance against what they call “NATO aggression” 25 years ago.
Serbian forces fought a war between 1998 and 1999 with ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, which was then a Serbian province. Around 13,000 people, most of them ethnic Albanians, died until a US-led NATO bombing campaign, which lasted 78 days, drove Serb troops out of Kosovo.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but the government in Belgrade does not recognize its neighbor as a separate country.
The leader of the opposition group Ecological Revolt, Aleksandar Jovanović, announced that the organization “will use all means, including physical ones” to defend the demolition of the former General Staff building and handing it over to an American company.
“The moment the first bulldozers appear, we will be waiting for them,” Jovanović said at a press conference and called on all citizens to join them, especially members of the Serbian Armed Forces, “all those who have the courage to defend the former General Staff and not allow this crime to happen.”
Administration officials defended the deal signed with Kushner’s firm Affinity Partners on Wednesday.
“We will restore the building 25 years after it was destroyed in the bombing,” said Construction Minister Goran Vesić. “For a quarter of a century, no one, before this Government, had thought about rebuilding the complex. When this space is revitalized, it will contribute to the development of Belgrade and Serbia.”
He said that a memorial to the attack, financed by the investor, will be built at the site.
Earlier this year, the Albanian tourism ministry acknowledged having received an investment project application from Affinity Partners to transform a former military base on the island of Sazan in the Adriatic Sea into a resort. Prime Minister Edi Rama said Albania was proud to have attracted such interest.