Conservator and former deputy director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Estela Radonjić Živkov, assessed for N1 that by adopting the lex specialis for the General Staff building, “Serbia has ranked itself among the three regimes in the world that have demolished cultural property.”
As she stated, she is not surprised by the adoption of the lex specialis for the General Staff building, but, as she said, if someone had asked her five years ago whether she would be surprised by the adoption of the law – she would certainly have said yes.
“In the 21st century, only three regimes in the world have destroyed cultural property – Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the Islamic Community in Iraq, and now Serbia. The first two did this out of fundamentalist, religious convictions. We are demolishing cultural property for the private interest of some foreign investor. So we are making history by selling cultural property, demolishing it, and doing everything for the private interest of some foreign investor,” she emphasized.
She considers this lex specialis to be the most illegal of all.
“This law completely invalidates the Law on Cultural Heritage, which a lex specialis cannot do, if we are talking about a legal system in a country where the Constitution comes first, then the law. This law overturns the Government’s decision from 2005 and introduces provisions that are not in accordance with the Law on Cultural Heritage, the Law on Planning and Construction, or even the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia,” she explained.
“I hope that the demolition will not happen, but even if it does, Trump Towers certainly won’t be there,” she concluded.
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Source: N1, Photo: Ata images