site.btaProtest in Belgrade Demands Reinstatement of Former Yugoslav People's Army Headquarters as Heritage Site

Students staged a protest in Belgradе on Monday demanding that the former Yugoslav People's Army headquarters (also known as General Staff Building), which was destroyed in the 1999 NATO bombing, be reinstated as a heritage site.

"The General Staff Building is ours, to all of us!", the students chanted on the day when Serbia marked 26 years since the Alliance's air strikes against the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The strikes began on March 24, 1999, ceased on June 11 that year and ended a year-long conflict in Kosovo between the regime of Serbian nationalist Slobodan Milosevic and Kosovo Albanian fighters seeking independence.

Protesting students, who are blocking more than 60 faculties in Serbia because of the tragedy in Novi Sad, do not approve of the Government's decision last year to remove the heritage site status of the complex.

On Monday, they submitted a request to the Constitutional Court to declare the decision unconstitutional, initiated a petition to have the status of the complex reinstated and carried banners that read, "A nation without cultural memory is a nation without a future!"

The government's decision to strip the complex of its status paved the way for its revitalization under an investment project by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump. Last year, the project was valued by the New York Times at USD 500 million. Kushner is a frequent visitor to Belgrade. Two weeks ago Donald Trump Jr., the son of U.S. President, also visited the Serbian capital at the height of anti-government protests organized by students.

"The cordial conversation with Donald Trump Jr, son of U.S. President Donald Trump, was devoted to the bilateral relations between Serbia and the U.S. and the current issues shaping the world political and economic scene," Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said at the time, stressing the great importance of economic cooperation between the two countries. 

On the site of the building, which is located opposite the buildings of the government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the centre of Belgrade, the company of Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner plans to build a business and residential complex, which will also include a memorial complex dedicated to all victims of NATO bombing.

Monday's student protest was supported by high school pupils, teachers, parents, engineers and architects.