BATTISTA (voice-over): The constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which provided for a constitutional monarchy, was adopted in 1921. King Alexander I abolished it in 1929 and began to rule as a dictator. He named the country Yugoslavia and enforced the use of one language, Serbo-Croatian. 
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BATTISTA: A couple of faxes that came in during the break. Harlan from Minnesota faxes: "The only difference between Milosevic and Hitler is the former doesn't wear a swastika on his arm." 
Jack from Texas has a little different view, perhaps. "I am a World War II vet who fought in Italy. There we were fighting for a just cause. I don't think we have any business sending our people to fight in a country that is fighting among themselves." 
Yugoslavia has a crown prince. He lives in London, he is he an exile, and he is a Serb by heritage. His parents fled Belgrade in 1941 to escape the Nazis. Please welcome to the show Crown Prince Alexander. 
Let me ask you, sir, as I understand it, you are against the NATO airstrikes. You are also not a fan of Mr. Milosevic's. If you were in power today, how would you solve this conflict? 
CROWN PRINCE ALEXANDER, YUGOSLAV EXILE: Well, I think we have reached the stage, because Milosevic wants to be bombed, and has used it to consolidate his position. We have lost 10 years to bring democracy. I think that the best solution was that, after '89, when the collapse of the soviet empire took place, that the west would have realized that our communists were not the digestible communists that they were so used to, as they might say, during the regime of Tito. 
In fact, more pressure should have been made to make the change towards democratic institutions. We have lost all this time, and now we've come to this horrible bombing which has collateral damage and kills innocent people. My concern is that it will get even worse after this, that Milosevic has closed down what's left of the freedom of the media. We had very little in any case, and he may declare shortly on state TV that they lost Kosovo because of the West. So, I would have handled everything very differently, but nobody really wanted to listen to me regarding the dangers of Milosevic. 
BATTISTA: Well, that's right. We'll listen to you. I was giving you a forum there, giving you a forum. 
ALEXANDER: Thank you. 
BATTISTA: Who do you think should broker peace in Yugoslavia? Do you think it requires outside help from, say, the United States or the United Nations, or can the country do it among its many factions? 
ALEXANDER: I don't think the country can do it on its own at this time, because there's utter confusion, and there has been domination of the media by the state. I think, here, we do need the West to be the honest broker, and not to take sides. We don't need any more weapons, and in fact, we need disarmament, and we need to have a presence of a few of the Western leaders, say, in Geneva, and bring everybody together there, and get a new dialogue going. 
However, I am concerned about having a dialogue with the Milosevics and any other element who does not respect any agreement. We, as I said, the 10 years have been serious, because anybody who wanted to bring democracy has lost out in a big way, and in Belgrade, now, I think you will find a lot of people have gone in hiding. 
BATTISTA: How do you feel about Kosovo's independence? 
ALEXANDER: I think the solution would have been to have had a democratic government in Belgrade who respects all its citizens, no matter what religion or ethnic origin. The problem is that this never had a chance to work, because Milosevic was given numerous leases on life after many agreements were taking place. Your previous guest mentioned Dayton. Yes, he represented the Bosnian Serbs there, and I think the West kept him in power for the sake of keeping that agreement going, and democracy was flouted completely. 
BATTISTA: So are you saying that you don't think the Kosovars would be pursuing independence, if Yugoslavia... 
ALEXANDER: Well, I think -- I think the Kosovars are having great trouble at the moment, because they, like the Serbs, are slightly disunited, misrepresented, Marxism is in both background, there is no proper freedom of the media, there is ethnic cleansing taking place, which I think is the most disgusting thing ever. The whole region is unstable, and I am very concerned about more people getting hurt, now, under the umbrella of bombing. 
BATTISTA: Let me ask you, is the monarchy still recognized by the Serbs, and do you have or talk with supporters back in Yugoslavia, and have any political aspirations to return? 
ALEXANDER: Well, I'm not a politician. I'm the person who's supposed to bring everybody together. I am not a member of any political party. In Europe, we have many monarchies. Japan is a monarchy, and I think the good thing about it is that I have maintained a line for democratic change, and the people have got to know it by word of mouth, and interviews through the fledgling independent media, and that's a problem now. The support is considerable, but I have not got the privilege to have access to the state media, which is controlled by Milosevic. There is so much that could be done, and the West could have been much more helpful in making the change. 
BATTISTA: We have to take a quick break. We will continue here, in just a moment. 
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BATTISTA: Welcome back. 
Samir (ph), who is monitoring our chat room, has a question for the prince. 
First of all, though, Samir, let me ask what the conversation is in the chat room, and this is, by the way, a different chat room than the one that Gillian over here is in. That one where we actively sought to get people to get people from Yugoslavia in that chat room. This is a different one? 
SAMIR: It is fairly vulgar, and pretty... 
BATTISTA: Clean it up for family television. 
SAMIR: Different groups from different places are sort of throwing things at each other, and, to be honest, not much of it is really making much sense. It is just... 
BATTISTA: There is no prevailing feeling, one way or the other, whether we should be involved in this conflict or not. 
SAMIR: No. BATTISTA: OK, your question for the crown prince. 
SAMIR: My question for the crown prince was: When Slobodan Milosevic came to power, he came to power with sort of a nationalist front, and I was wondering how much of this situation right now has to do with him, personally, and how much of it has to do with his military support and popular support in the country, itself. 
ALEXANDER: Well, it is intertwined. Yes, he did come to power using negative nationalism and negative religion. One must remember that he has set up a whole system, the Ministry of the Interior, called MUP, is a country within the country. It has budget of $4 billion, and many divisions, which have been involved in the most horrific things. 
He has penetrated all areas of the country, institutions everywhere. So he has maintained his power base, and, once more, he has projected himself abroad by receiving so many Western visitors, foreign secretaries, secretaries of state and so on, and wining and dining them. 
In fact, he has become somewhat of an emperor within his own country, and all of this is quite negative, because anybody who wanted to bring democracy has been literally shut up. 
BATTISTA: And to Derrick (ph) in our audience. 
DERRICK: OK, I would like to address a similar question to the prince. I would like to know his opinion on the following fact: The population, either the Kosovars or the Serbs, have not been able to give their voice as a population, and it is only their leaders who have been able to express themselves. So I think what is being done now by the military action is trying to give the population the possibility to express themselves. So what do you think about that? 
ALEXANDER: I think you have a very valid point, but how can they express themselves when the state, that is Milosevic, controls all of the media? And so they do not have an outlet to discuss matters like we are doing now over CNN. They do not have a way of exchanging information. So we are somewhat in the stone age regarding this. 
BATTISTA: Let's take a phone call from Victor in New York. And, Victor, you say you are a Kosovo-Albanian? 
VICTOR: That is correct. I was born there. And, as a youngster, I did go to schools there. We spoke Albanian, and we had our rights. We had our government. 
That no longer exists. That was taken away by Milosevic and his people. People don't seem to realize that Milosevic and his people are the same ones, the same type of person that, during the Second World War, was cooperating with the Nazis for a Greater Serbia. 
BATTISTA: Let me ask you something. Did you say you were taken away? VICTOR: I am sorry, no. I was not taken away. My family immigrated to the United States, but I remember what I had back then. We had our own schools. We spoke our own language. We had our people and our government, and who doesn't want to be controlled and be in charge of your own destiny? 
That was all stripped away. For the past ten years, that no longer exists, and people don't seem to realize that it is 90 Albanian. I constantly hear Serbians say it is part of Serbia. It is the homeland, or whatever the case is. How could it be the homeland, when it is 90 percent Albanian? How could they expect to kill all of those people and get rid of all of those people and take over the land? It does not make any sense. Maybe because I grew up in the United States and I have the beliefs and the views of the United States, but to me it does not make any sense. 
BATTISTA: Let me go to Vladimir. 
VLADIMIR: Yes. Serbia was never collaborating with Nazis. They were partners with America with Great Britain and France in the Second World War. That is a lie that that man said. 
And a question for crown prince, do you speak Serbian language? 
ALEXANDER: (SPEAKING SERBIAN) 
BATTISTA: Well, what did he say? 
ALEXANDER: Do you speak English? 
VLADIMIR: Yes, I speak but not so well as you. I speak Serbian better. 
BATTISTA: All right, over here. 
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was going to repeat what I said here before that the Kosovo situation is very complicated. Of course, there is 90 percent population of Albanians now, but that was not always true. This territory was initially Serbian for centuries. It was the capital of Serbia. The king was there. 
BATTISTA: Let me ask you something. Knowing all of this history that you know, what do you think is the best way is to settle this? 
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there has to be -- I agree with the former king of Yugoslavia that there has to be a government in Yugoslavia, as there was before, that will respect all of the minorities and all people and they should be citizens of Yugoslavia, with equal rights. And once this is maintained, I think the territory should remain part of Serbia. 
BATTISTA: Let me get a final word from the prince on that. Prince Alexander, anything else you would like to say? 
ALEXANDER: Well, I think everybody has the right to say as they wish, but we don't have that luxury. Certainly, everybody can speak the language. It is important that the Albanians speak the Albanian language, as it is important the Serbs speak their own language. But nobody has really has the luxury to practice this, and there has been a lot of bad thing that have been done by Milosevic. 
I lay my finger on Milosevic and for the West of having allowed him to be hanging around such a long time. And now we are going to lose more time and, unfortunately, more people are going to be killed. But the objective must be, in the end, as we go into the 21st century, democracy and human rights for all, no matter what religion. 
BATTISTA: All right, our thanks to the crown prince of Yugoslavia for joining us today. We appreciate it very much. 
ALEXANDER: Thank you, Bobbie, very much. 
BATTISTA: Your welcome.