Diplomatic Dispatches By Nora Boustany

Prince of Belgrade

Yugoslavia's Crown Prince Alexander II, living in his family's ancestral palace in Belgrade since July 2001, said his country, now called Serbia and Montenegro, is "an emerging democracy" trying to recover from sanctions, isolation and the devastation of war.

Serbia and Montenegro, which was left after the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991 and took its current name in February, has a long way to go toward recovery, but seeks entry into the European Union, the crown prince said.

Speaking at the Western Policy Center here last week, the crown prince said one of his great-grandfathers was the last king of what was known as the Kingdom of Serbia, while another was the last king of the Kingdom of Montenegro. In 1929, his grandfather, Alexander I, became king of Yugoslavia, the former kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. His father, King Peter II, is buried in Libertyville, Ill.

In February 2001, the crown prince, his wife and three sons were granted Serbian citizenship in a ceremony in the suite where he was born at Claridge's Hotel in London. The suite was declared Yugoslav territory by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1945. In 1947, a decree issued by Tito's government stripped the crown prince of his Yugoslav citizenship and rights to the throne.