Yugoslavs await flight home to Belgrade

Press, 5 December 1988, Page 10

Yugoslavs await flight home to Belgrade

NZPA-AAP Sydney The expelled Yugoslav diplomatic staff were waiting at a secret location at Sydney International Airport last evening for a flight home to Belgrade.

The staff left the Yugos-

lav consulate in Woollahra, eastern Sydney, in the afternoon in three cars amid tight security. Several passengers attempted to cover the windows with their arms and it was impossible to determine whether the wanted

security guard, Zoran Matijas, was among them. Canberra ordered the diplomats’ expulsion and the closing of the consulate after the Yugoslavs refused to hand over Ma-

tijas, who allegedly shot a schoolboy, Josef Tokic at a Croatian demonstration

outside the consulate on November 27. Chief Inspector Arch Willis, in charge of the operation which involved about 70 police, said everything went smoothly. The only incident occurred when a policewoman was bitten by a

dog. A significant police presence would remain at the deserted consulate until further notice. The Foreign Affairs Minister, Senator Gareth

Evans, gave consulate staff until 6 p.m. today to leave Australia. An air-

port spokesman said the

diplomats would leave for Belgrade today on a Yugoslav Airlines DCIO. “They will be taken to a remote area of the terminal to go through customs and baggage clearance. Even the plane will not be visible from the termi-

nal,” he said. The Yugoslavs were to retain full diplomatic protection until they left Australia after an aborted threat by the New South Wales Government to

defy the Commonwealth and arrest Matijas. The police wanted to

charge Matijas with dis-

charging a firearm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Josef Tokic is still in hospital in a satisfactory condition. Yugoslavia has left open the possibility of expelling Australian diplo-

mats from Belgrade in its official response to forced closure of its Sydney consulate. The formal response was delivered to Australian diplomats and had

been passed to Senator Evans, a Foreign Department spokesman said in

Canberra. The note, although expressing “firm displeasure,” was not a note of official protest, the spokesman said. So far no action has been taken against Australian diplomats in Belgrade.

Diplomats in Belgrade have hinted that authorities could delay accepting letters of credit of new Australian Ambassador, Francis Milne, who arrived last Thursday.

They also said two or three Australian diplomats could be expelled.