Serbians stand up against property developer

Sasa Simic lives in a large house in Belgrade with about 300 other people. Behind the house sits a park that for the past 50 years had been tended to by the municipality. It was a green oasis and beloved by the neighbors — until the morning of July 12, 2019.

Without any warning, construction workers turned up and quickly cut down 17 trees. They erected a fence around the park and put up a sign declaring the area a "private construction site." This day is etched into Simic's memory. He recalls that "we were stunned, and could not believe what was happening." Over the following days, that feeling turned into anger and ultimately a spirit of defiance. The neighbors started blockading the site to prevent the construction work from continuing and gathered 3,000 signatures in a bid to stop the project.

Read more: Foreign investment in Serbia: Turning the first sod in the national interest

Legal madness

But building contractor, Ninoslav Adzic, has a document that shows he has been the owner of the property for the past four years. He says that "according to our auditor, this property is accruing €8,700 in lost revenue each week" because of the neighbor's "bogus environmental campaign," as he calls it. He has vowed to hold the neighbors responsible and his lawyers have already filed several legal complaints.

The building contractor also fenced off an adjacent piece of property that he did not own, though he claims the owner never objected to it.

The neighbors, meanwhile, have also hired a lawyer. Jelena Milenkovic says that in 2014 the municipality returned the park to the relatives of the person from whom it was expropriated 60 years ago. Milenkovic says the handover was based on an unconventional, albeit legal, procedure. The relatives then sold the property to Adzic.

Now, Serbian courts must decide whether the park is officially classified as belonging to the house it borders, or as a separate, outdoor area. Only in this latter case would the municipality be allowed to turn it into private property, which could then be used for a construction project.

Read more: Covert demolitions inspire opposition revolt in Belgrade

But the crux of the matter is that the building plans and paperwork documenting the handover of the park are nowhere to be found. All documents dating back to before 2000 were moved from local archives to the central municipal one. Simic says he went there to gather the respective documents but found "four overworked women, surrounded by boxes and boxes of papers." He says none of the documents were in any particular order, making it practically impossible to find what he was after.

Milenkovic says she cannot find the municipal decision from 1967 regarding the use of the property in question in the local archive, either. This, to her, is typical for the former Yugoslavian states and their negligent bureaucrats and unregulated transition to capitalism.

Read more: Why are Serbs protesting against Aleksandar Vucic?

The conflict escalates

The locals, however, vowed to keep up the fight. They have people keeping an eye on the site around the clock. On September 14, two technicians showed up who had been tasked with carrying out measurements for water connections on the property. The neighbors, however, would not let them access the site. One of the technicians then grew agitated, lashed out and seriously injured two people. Elvin Kovacic was one of them. He remembers seeing his neighbor Boban "lying on the ground, covered in blood; I bent down to help him but then the attacker punched me and broke my nose." Police later arrested the man.

But according to Adzic, the altercation unfolded somewhat differently. He says the technician was attacked first and that "his ability to defend himself apparently proved more efficient" than what locals had expected. He is adamant that "we did not send thugs" to cause trouble.

Yet more legal absurdities

The municipality looked after the park for five years since it was sold to Adzic, even planting a birch tree a few months before the construction crews began arriving. But then the local supervisory body then fined him for not having permission to cut down the 17 trees. Ironically, he also has a letter in which the city assures the building contractor that it is not responsible for these trees as they are located on "private property."

Read more: In the Balkans, locals fight to save their wild flowing rivers from hydropower

The locals now fear the construction work could harm the structure of their home, which sits atop a slope. But the owner says he was given the go-ahead by a structural engineer.  Adzic thinks this whole conflict could have been prevented if the neighbors had been informed about his plans in advance.

Possible resolution?

After all, the locals were never told about the privatization of the property, the altered construction plan, nor the go-ahead for the building project. And neither were the municipal services tasked with tending to the park, nor were employees of the environmental agency.

The local mayor has now said he wants to help resolve this conflict — though in Serbia, cases like these are not uncommon. Illegal construction projects are ubiquitous and often those responsible will pay authorities bribes to retroactively legalize their undertaking. Yet this case is even more complex, as both the city of Belgrade and the Serbian state failed to do their jobs properly.

Now, as a result, 300 Belgrade locals who have had their next-door park taken from them overnight feel they've been essentially forsaken by the state. Does this make their civil disobedience legitimate? Sasa Simic certainly thinks so. He says what they are doing isn't illegal given that the Serbian state is essentially going after its own people.

DW sends out a daily selection of the day's news and features. Sign up here.