27 April 1999

Interviewer: On Your Call today your questions and comments to Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia.

My guest this morning is His Royal Highness Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia who is opposed to both Milosevic’s regime and the bombing of his country. So what’s the answer? How can we answer the Kosovo question with as little bloodshed as possible. It is Your Call, what do you think.

And so Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia is our guest, a very welcome to you. Can you explain please first of all why you are against Nato’s campaign against Yugoslavia?

HRH. Because it is hurting the people. I would like to give an example of the incredible amount of e-mails that I am receiving from Yugoslavia this one is from Novi Sad. 

“It says Novi Sad has been bombed again. The last bridge connecting two parts of the city has been destroyed as the final result 400.000 people are without water. Are the British people still being told that this is a humanitarian situation and mission? Because if the British government still think so, why are our lives and the lives of our children so much less. This air campaign is not aimed at strictly military targets - that is simple not true. People here are suffering very much and the world has to know it.”

So we do have a humanitarian situation in Yugoslavia and also in Kosovo.

Interviewer: But Prince Alexander we know of course that NATO did not want to take this offensive action that they felt they were forced in to doing so after diplomatic relations had broken down and after the Rambouillet agreement wasn’t signed.

HRH: The problem goes back in time. But Rambouillet was rather like putting a gun to the head of Serbia. I am in opposition to Mr Milosevic. I think that when the Soviet Empire collapsed in 89 Milosevic had every opportunity to go for the democratic solution, his agenda was power using nationalism, using Kosovo which is dear to the hearts of the Serbs. If democracy had prevailed I don’ think we would have reached this. The trouble is that the west played along with it by using Mr Milosevic in one peace mission after another over these years and Dayton was a perfect example to detriment of the Serbian and Montenegrin people that democracy was shot down every time after each agreement and stations were close down, media was closed down. The students were suffering. A total disaster.

Interviewer: Okay, well I know many people want to put their points to you and so let’s take our first caller. It is Mark from King Lynn. Good morning to you Mark.

Mark: Good morning. Your Royal Highness good morning to you. At this point I need really for you to try address, now I accept you I hope you are a man of honour, but I find your position shameful, absolutely shameful. You say you are against Milosevic but you are against NATO. I presume that you take such a position in hope that should a monarchy be ever allowed back in Yugoslavia that you can en-grain yourself with your people. Why not come out and actually recognise that what NATO is doing is to flout and stop evil. In 1999 on the doorsteps of Europe evil is happening we can see it with our own eyes. I accept the people in Yugoslavia are suffering, but to the greater good. The people in Novi Sad that you mentioned why don’t they come out and actually protest against what’s happened to the Kosovars. Why don’t you address that?

Interviewer: Okay that you very much indeed for your questions and perhaps Prince Alexander you’d like to reply.

HRH: I understand there are a lot of feelings about the situation, but one should remember that the consolidation of the Milosevic regime has been over the last ten years. He inherited the communist apparatus and he tuned it up. Particularly with the Ministry of the Interior which had a budget last year of $7 billion compared to approximately $1 billion for the Peoples Army. Now this ministry has created opposition, runs the militias and so on. Anybody who has gone against Mr Milosevic either has been killed hurt or has vanished. So it has been extremely difficult in doing that. Also in controlling the media, one has roused up the feelings. I value the friendship with the democratic leaders of the west, but imagine being a Yugoslav citizen, a Serbian or Montenegrin citizen, and being bombed by the nineteen democracies that one wanted to emulate. And that the west has actually supported Milosevic in one meeting after another. Every Foreign Secretary has gone down to visit him in Belgrade.

Interviewer: But surely that is because everybody going back to our original conversation everybody involved wanted to find a diplomatic solution. It wasn’t that they were bending over backwards to help Milosevic. It was that they wanted a peaceful solution here.

HRH: Everybody wants a peaceful solution, but you must understand who you are dealing with. This person has been anti Serbian ever since the beginning. The Serbian people are good people. The problem is that these leaders in the case of Milosevic, and other former Yugoslav leaders by the way, have used negative religion and negative nationalism to promote themselves perpetually and this is not on.

Interviewer: Okay well let’s speak to Goran now who is calling from Yugoslavia. Goran it’s your call.

Goran: Hello Good morning. Good morning Your Royal Highness. I am a third generation Australian of Serbian descent. Just like Your Royal Highness I haven’t lived here very much and I have only just come to this country. And what I would like to say is that I think that is the King should come back here in some kind of capacity. Probably in a capacity as Her Majesty is in England. Just for moral for some kind of – so that the world will recognise us as a people again. Not as some kind of nationality on Sky News that just doesn’t exist, I mean we are people, we are real people. You are bombing real people and for what ever reason. I mean we are not right what ever we are doing in Kosovo, but you are not right in what you’re doing in bombing because two wrong don’t make a right. I mean you have the American President Clinton saying with the thing that has been in America (Denver, Co) the last couple of days that violence is wrong. How can he speak that violence is wrong if all that we have seen is violence from his country.

Interviewer: Okay Goran thank you for your call. Prince Alexander then the Serb people should be recognised as people? Is that your dearest wish? With the royal family?
HRH: Well for example I am above politics. I am for the democratic process, human rights, and the respect of religion regardless of origin or ethnic origin. The trouble is that we haven’t had the luxury of having this like in other countries. The disaster is that the country, which is ten to eleven million, is at ransom to 250.000 or so thugs and indeed the sanctions have hurt the country over the years. Also Serbs suffered tremendous ethnic cleansing in Croatia some 600.000 lost their homes throughout Croatia including Krajina. Yes the Muslims have suffered ethnic cleansing and indeed the Croats. I think we must draw a line and there must be the end of bombing, the end of all-hostile operations, KLA terrorism and state-sanctioned terrorism. We must get on with the democratic formula for once and all, and a massive aid programme because the whole region is suffering dramatically.

Interviewer: Do you think that a democratic process within Kosovo would work? Surely the factions within the KLA would lead themselves to police it.

HRH: Well the KLA is a terrorist element and I don’t think the terrorist elements should be allowed to surface. It is very important to realise that there is a Serbian saying “there is enough bread and land in Kosovo” for both the Kosovo Albanians and indeed the Serbs that every right to live there. Their problem is that others are interfering with these peoples lives namely the regime in Belgrade who refuse to recognise all citizens of Kosovo including Serbs. We have a bishop there, bishop Artemije, who has been pointed out that he wanted to be represented in Rambouillet which turned out to be a disaster, he was turned down by the Rambouillet conference. I think that really the citizens can get on with each other if people do not interfere. Under the bombs something terrible has happened. Yes there are refugees, a million in Kosovo, in neighbouring countries such as Albania and Macedonia that are very poor indeed also, but these refugees are losing their houses not only because of terrorist activities but also because of NATO bombing. There is utter confusion.

Interviewer: If I can interrupt you. How could people live side by side as you say without various forces involved when people know that they are living perhaps next door to others who perfectly  ? their families?

HRH: I mentioned missions that went down to see Mr Milosevic in Belgrade. The same missions went down to see Mr Rugova in Kosovo. Now both these entities were used as you might say. If only they had been brought forward in a democratic process and the evil elements of the regime had been removed and the true democratic elements – and we have seen progress, great progress in Montenegro – we would not have had this disaster. We have to turn a new page and this page is the democratic process. It is going to be difficult, but has been done before and it can happen again.

Interviewer: Okay, well let’s some more calls after the break. Our guest is the Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia.

(Commercial break)

Interviewer: Good morning you are watching Your Call, let’s take some e-mail. From Russell who e-mailed us from South Africa. What physiological damage is being inflicted on the children of Yugoslavia and Serbia? How can the west be winning their hearts and minds for the future? He says.

And Michael from Watford has e-mailed to say that you have called for an end to the bombing, but what about Kosovo? Do agree that something had to be done to stop the terrible atrocities carried out there.

Goran from Yugoslavia says we are humans we’re not animals. We earn peoples affection by our human values. We sing during the bombing. Only those who don’t know us call us mercenaries, liars and cheats. 

And finally Goraga? from Belgrade says Your Royal Highness in your opinion why do the western democrats accept the KLA who are a terrorist organisation as their allies now. Well let’s put that point to the Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia. Why is the west in this lady’s opinion accepting the KLA? 

HRH: Well I think that is a tragedy to accept a terrorist organisation.  Terrorism is not the solution. It is people that count. You had all these e-mail messages which show tremendous feelings. Yes the children are being affected, all citizens are being affected as are the Kosovo Albanians and the Kosovo Serbs. It is a disaster, but terrorism cannot prevail and in fact you probably noticed that many foreign leaders have spoken out against the terrorist element and have not come out in public support. I did notice a meeting between one of the leaders and one of the terrorists. I don’t think that this is correct. I think really we must recognise the people and let them have the freedom of choice in a calm period and decide what their future is without guns being pointed at people’s heads. 

Interviewer: Okay well I can go to a caller from Swindon. She’s called Denuta, Denuta it is your call.

Denuta: Good Morning. I would like to say to Prince Alexander that how can your were saying on the programme that his people are good, the nation is good only Milosevic is bad. So how come these good people, those plain soldiers are killing and raping people. They are ordinary people nobody stands above their heads with a shotgun and telling them rape or kill. Now why are they doing that. Is that such a good people? And their parents standing in Beograd street dancing and singing while their sons doing those atrocities and you call a good nation. I wouldn’t call that good nation.

Interviewer: Denuta thank you very much for your call. Prince Alexander so why can you call the nation good when these atrocities – there is evidence now that these atrocities are taking place from Serb forces.

HRH: I think that it is appalling to criticise a whole nation ten to eleven million people for what a few appalling thugs are doing which is quite disgusting. I don’t find this correct. I think one should look at where the root of this evil is coming from and that is from Mr Milosevic whose only interest is power, and the perpetual use of this power by using the Ministry of the Interior that has created the militias and they have been active. And I think they are appalling and that is what we should be dealing with, these sort of criminals.

Interviewer: But he is after all a democratically elected leader isn’t he?

HRH: I think that is absolute rubbish. How can you call that a democratically elected leader when he controls the media. He has created opposition parties. Closed down opposition parties. Has manipulated people’s minds through the propaganda machine. That is not democracy to the true sense. So I don’t agree with that.

Interviewer: Okay so let’s take another caller now. George is on the line from Leeds, good morning.

George: Good morning. Your Royal Highness Prince Alexander I would like to ask just two brief questions. People often refer to Milosevic being evil and his regime as being evil. Why did NATO not support the one million Serbs who marched through Belgrade trying to depose him in 1997 and 1996. And at the same time if NATO is trying to save the Kosovo Albanians by installing some kind of protectorate in Yugoslavia surely by that precedent they should accept a protectorate in Croatia and let the half million Serbs who were driven from their homes go back there and live under the same rights the Albanians have.

Interviewer: Okay thank you for your call George. Prince Alexander.

HRH: Well this caller is absolutely correct. He has brought up a very good point. I think the west had an agenda which was quite shocking, which was to use the leaders like the Tudjman’s and the Milosevic’s to sue for peace. This gentleman brought up the case that two winters ago huge demonstrations in Belgrade and other cities throughout Yugoslavia. These people wanted democracy. Their vote was stolen in the municipality elections. Now remember only recently we had big demonstrations in Indonesia and the west, particularly the United States, said to the dictator you must go. Not in our case. They actually wanted to use our dictator to enforce these ridiculous agreements to the detriment of those that wanted democracy. The majority of the people in my country in Serbia and Montenegro wanted to have democracy. The tragedy is that many of them living in the country are also refugees from the Krajina and Croatia. My sympathy, and I repeat it, goes out to all those who have been ethnically cleansed, I am against it 100% and I want everybody to get that right. 

Interviewer: How do you feel when you see the pictures day after day of your country being dismantled by the NATO attack?

HRH: I’m horrified. You see the way to keep a country together is to recognise all citizens. I think that this is the most normal process, but this was not in the agenda of Mr Milosevic. I should point out it is my duty to stand up against evil and evil is running the regime in Belgrade. It is my duty and I must continue to do this. I am against the bombing as I am against Mr Milosevic. I will continue.

Interviewer: Okay well let’s take Katherine, she is calling from Newton. Katherine it’s your call.

Katherine: Your Royal Highness not only have NATO destroyed the outer atmosphere with the bombing of the factories, the chemical factories and polluted the waterways and the drinking water with the oil spillage’s. Now they are poisoning mother earth itself with the depleted uranium and this is all in the realms of a peaceful earth situation. There will be no land there for the people to go back and farm. Now you see in this country there is censorship and I get a lot of my information from the German national television a lot of people don’t tune into there and if I want to see a demonstration in London you’ll see it on the German television not on this. So there is an awful lot of propaganda going on. Will you be suing NATO if you ever go back to your country for the deformities of all the children that are going to be born?

Interviewer: Katherine thank you. Prince Alexander.

HRH: This lady is bringing out an extremely important point – depleted uranium – this is all being brought to my attention. The chemicals that are flying around. This lady is absolutely correct, there is an ecological and human disaster and you compound that with the unfortunate suffering of these refuges. We have a total humanitarian disaster. She has also brought out another very important point. We all talk about propaganda machine in Belgrade –and I would like to say that my sympathy goes out to all the journalists who were killed (bombed) and their families. I disagree with the propaganda machine, but my sympathy goes out to the journalists and their families.  I think the lady has pointed a very important factor that the west is operating also a propaganda machine, and the journalists – this has been pointed out on SKY before – have not had an opportunity to independently verify things. She is getting information from Germany, I have noticed that it is slightly more open and I think that there must be an investigation into this to remove this propaganda on both sides and let the people know the truth. Let the people know were Milosevic stands and were the west stands openly.

Interviewer: Okay, well those sentiments obviously reflected yesterday with Draskovic’s comments to his own government. But now let’s take Daniel’s call from Serbia. Daniel.

Daniel: Good morning. First of all I would like to greet His Royal Highness the prince whose subject I am hopeful of becoming in the not so distant future. Nest my question. Would His Royal Highness care to enlighten us as to the air campaign is directed against the alleged dictator, I mean Slobodan Milosevic, or against the Serbian people in order to force them to give way and agree to the secession of Kosovo and the pretext being that of human rights. 

Interviewer: Okay thank you, oh okay one more yeah.

Daniel: Yes would His Royal Highness be willing to ascend his rightful throne should Mr Milosevic step out from power and would that have any influence on the ongoing aggression?

Interviewer: Thank you very much indeed. Well I think you have already answered the fist part of that question and will you be willing to go home and to take on the throne should Milosevic be deposed?

HRH: Well my objective of course is to back home and serve my people. It is a question of reigning and a constitutional monarchy, and the government are the rulers elected democratically by the people. I think this all has to come to an end – the bombing campaign has cease – I respect what the caller is saying, he is reflecting what a lot of people are saying in my country and I want the west to take notice of this. I will represent my country very proudly. I am very proud of my heritage. We can become a great democracy too like all the others. The point is that we need to incorporate within a settlement the democratic leaders who have been really bashed on the head by the regime.

Interviewer: Okay can I just interrupt there for a moment. We have from you that you are critical of both the Milosevic regime and the NATO attack. So give us some positive views. What do you think could happen to enable people to return to their homes and live side by side as you indicated.

HRH: Well the campaign has to stop. I understand that everybody has got their feelings now and they don’t want to loose face. I think really that this has to be put on the side. A disaster is happening to so many people of so many religions and ethnic origins. This must end and we must get on with the process as I was saying before with the democratic reform. What must be included in a solution is the President of Montenegro Mr Milo Djukanovic, President of the Democratic Party Mr Djindjic, Mr Vojislav Kostunica the Serb Leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia, Mrs Vesna Pesic, the Liberal Party, the students, Mr Rugova and the moderates, no terrorists from either side and indeed also the churches. I think that this must be an enlarged conference compounded with an end of the twentieth century or twenty fist century Marshall Aid plan.

Interviewer: Okay I am terribly sorry, but we have to interrupt there, but I am sure we got your point. Crown Prince Alexander thank you for joining us on Your Call.