Students in the blockade Kruševac they are calling the citizens to the rally "Save Freedom", with which they want to point out illegality and harmfulness the city's decision to build an exhibition area for weapons on the site of that Memorial Complex.
On Sunday, June 21, at 18 p.m., a protest march will start from Actors' Square towards Slobodiste.
This gathering is one of the numerous reactions to the fact that the City of Kruševac announced a tender for contractors who will build a military equipment exhibition park at the Slobodiste Memorial Site without an architectural and urban planning competition and public discussion, as well as the fact that the works, despite the public's indication that this decision is illegal, have begun.
A petition with the same goal is underway.
It is being built without a permit.
A group of citizens, the authors of the Declaration for the Preservation of the Slobodiste Memorial Park, wrote that "for the undertaken works, there is no adequate decision on consent to the project and documentation issued by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in Kraljevo, (responsible for Slobodiste), but the works are carried out on the basis of partial technical conditions for the infrastructure, which deliberately circumvents the provisions of the Law on Planning and Construction and the Law on Cultural Heritage. Within the framework of the project documentation, no decisions on consent for any construction are available to the public."
In order to preserve the authenticity and integrity of the cultural property according to international charters (Venice Charter), any intervention that changes the essence of the monument is prohibited."
In the Declaration, they also state that the works are being carried out on three plots, two of which are protected as cultural assets by the Decision on the Declaration of the Slobodiste Memorial Complex. They also remind that the citizens of Kruševac did not have the opportunity to express their views on the project, which is against Article 51 of the Constitution.
"We strongly oppose"
Many professional organizations warn that the exhibition space threatens the Memorial Complex.
Thus, the ICOMOS National Committee points out that Slobodiste, the work of architect Bogdan Bogdanović, is dedicated to the memory of the victims of war with a pronounced libertarian vision of the future, and that is why "they strongly oppose the idea of placing military exhibits within the framework of this space, which is contrary to the values that Slobodiste embodies, as well as international guidelines and standards for the protection and preservation of memorial heritage".
The Association of Architects of Serbia points out that the entire area of Slobodiste must be preserved as a whole without changing it. "Such contents are defined by public architectural competitions, and this is the main objection to this ongoing undertaking, from the administration of the city of Kruševac. The competition of ideas is irreplaceable in reaching the high spatial and form level necessary for memorial complexes, especially those financed from the budget - with public money," they wrote in the statement.
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