Yugoslavia Expels Monitor Writer As Part of Retaliation Against West

YUGOSLAVIA has banned several foreign journalists, including the Monitor's Jonathan S. Landay.

The Federal Ministry of Information informed Mr. Landay Friday afternoon that his press credentials were being revoked, and that he must surrender his accreditation to the Ministry of Information Monday morning. Landay has reported from Belgrade since 1990.

At the same time, Britain's Sky News network's correspondent and a Bulgarian journalist who works for Radio Free Europe in Belgrade were also suspended. Last Wednesday, Yugoslavia barred correspondents of the French news agency AFP and CNN. And on Saturday, it banned correspondents for the French newspaper Le Monde and the Austrian daily Die Presse.

Danielle Sremac, who represents Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic in the Serbian-American Affairs office in Washington, says she believes the crackdown is in retaliation to the April 10 and 11 NATO airstrikes on the Bosnian town of Gorazde. Consul-General Dusan Paunovic of the Yugoslav Embassy in Washington, contacted by the Monitor on Friday, said he was not aware of any action taken against the Monitor.

The Monitor has officially protested the action to the Ministry of Information in Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Embassy in Washington, as well as the US State Department in Washington.