The Sioux City Journal 
Tuesday, October 18, 1994 

Crown Prince Says his role is peacemaker 

The United States has a the history and experience in multi-cultural and racial issues to be a broker for peace in his country, the Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia said Monday in Sioux City. 

"I think if they put this to practise in foreign policyî said His Royal Highness Crown Prince Alexander, ìbasically the U.S. would be the honest platform, the true and honest brokers, of putting heads together and seeding the democratic institutions and meeting points." 

Alexander said he also feels his unorthodox life as the exiled ruler of the former Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, renamed Yugoslavia in 1929, has prepared him for the role of his life ñ that of peacemaker. 

"They're going to need a meeting point, and the meeting point is myself,"he said, "a person who was educated abroad, and has the credentials and can bring hope and a future and respect for the political process, because thatís what weíre all doing out here." 

Unfortunately, added the crown prince, who was in Sioux City to speak to the Rotary luncheon, "there are spurts of energy at one moment and nothing going on at other times, and the conflict continues." 

The solution to the problems, said Alexander, who is Serbian is "to find peace and create a future, putting people first. But to get to that, it's going to be very difficult, because in fact, not only in Yugoslavia, but outside Yugoslavia, many people have taken sides." 

The region has a turbulent history of dictatorship, political, religious and nationalistic unrest, intimidation of people, mafias and militias, Alexander said. More than 100,000 people have died in recent conflicts. 

Alexander, descended from Queen Victoria of England and Godson of Queen Elizabeth II, is the head of the Karadjordjevic family dynasty formed in 1804. He was born in London in 1945, where his parents, King Peter II and Queen Alexandra, lived in exile. 

The family has remained in exile since the Yugoslavian monarchy was abolished and the country became communist following World War II. Alexander said the abolition was illegal, the family's nationality was removed and its private properties confiscated. 

Alexander lived and was educated in Europe and America and served in the British Army. His children were born in the United States and he met his second wife in Washington, D.C. His father died in 1970 and is buried in Libertyville, Illinois, the only king buried in the U.S. His mother died in 1993 and is buried in the family vault outside Athens, Greece. 

While he was not trained for royalty, only "to be himself," Alexander says his life has been unlike any other royal life Ñ it has been fairly normal. 

"I've been very lucky," said the monarch, who has been an international businessman for years."I've had to earn my living and therefore I've been in touch with people all my life. "I personally don't think that many royal families have gone through what I have gone through." 

Alexander and his family belong to the larger community of European royalty, which includes Queen Elizabeth II and family. 

Alexander says his business life was curtailed around 1989 when world events began to change drastically. Suddenly "people started coming to see me, approaching me" he said. 

At the invitation of the opposition party in Belgrade, Alexander, his wife and son Peter, his heir, visited Belgrade in 1991 and again in 1992.