I follow the unpleasant events at Belgrade University with great anxiety and concern and denounce most strongly the brutal police action of 26 May where police with "special operatives" in mufti savagely beat up the students and other citizens. I express my full solidarity with the just struggle of Belgrade students and their professors to preserve the autonomy of the University and call on them to insist in a dignified and peaceful manner on the respect of their rights. The students and all genuine democratic forces are resolutely resisting the crude political meddling by the regime in the University's affairs. In this, they have the support of the entire civilized world, which remembers with admiration the student winter protest of 1996 and 1997. They also have my full support because young people are our future and we must defend and protect them like the apple of the eye. 

ALEXANDER 

London, 28 May 1998