son in law trump luxury resort serbia albania

A mega luxury hotel-real estate complex in the former headquarters of the Serbian army, in Belgrade, the one bombed by NATO in 1999, during the Yugoslav war, in a “humanitarian war” campaign that aimed to force Slobodan Miloševi? to stop his campaign in Kosovo, but which caused thousands of deaths. The North American real estate company Affinity Partner wants to finance it, in other words Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and his former senior presidential advisor when his father-in-law was in the White House, with the approval of the pro-Trump local government.

The opposition and a good portion of public opinion do not like the initiative. A group opposed to the project launched a petition to stop the project, on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the start of the bombing, which was last Sunday.

The petition asks the government to respect Serbian law, according to which the building, which still clearly bears the signs of the bombs, can only be returned to its original functions, and if anything, used in part to house a future museum of Serbian history.

“The construction of a hotel on the site of this building is illegal and represents the destruction of our dignity,” the Kreni-Promeni opposition movement said. According to the initiative’s promoters, 10,000 people signed the petition in less than 24 hours.

At the beginning of the month Kushner had confirmed the news on his company’s intent to finance the project, which includes a multi-starred hotel, a luxury apartment complex, as well as the inevitable office space and shopping center.

For many locals, the site from which the Serbian army was forced to move with bombs is one of the symbols of Serbian resistance against what they consider to be NATO aggression. In 1998-1999 Serbia fought the war against separatists of Albanian origin from Kosovo. The bombings of the Atlantic Alliance, which lasted 78 days, pushed Belgrade’s troops out of the invaded region, at the end of an action that cost the lives of around 13 thousand people, mostly of Albanian origin, but in turn caused over 2,500 deaths. Kosovo declared its independence in 2008, but Serbia still does not recognize the neighboring region as an autonomous state.

Returning to his artistic son-in-law, Albania’s tourism minister confirmed that he in turn has an investment proposal from Affinity Partners. Also in this case it is a military base, on the island of Saseno, to be transformed into a resort. Local Prime Minister Edi Rama said he was proud to attract such interest.