The government closed the Yugoslav Consulate in Sydney Friday and gave the staff 72 hours to leave the country for refusing to surrender a security guard accused of shooting a demonstrator.
The government had set a 24-hour deadline Thursday for Yugoslav officials to turn the guard over to Australian police."The government has declared the consular office persona non grata and other members of the staff to be unacceptable," Foreign Minister Gareth Evans said in a statement.
Evans said the staff of 12 and their dependents must leave by 6 p.m. on Monday.
"I deeply regret Australia has been forced into this action by the refusal of the Yugoslav government to allow the law to take its normal course," he said.
Evans said his government reserved the right to claim compensation from Yugoslav authorities for the family of 16-year-old Jospeh Tokic, who was shot in the throat during a demonstration outside the consulate Sunday, Yugoslav National Day.
Yugoslav authorities said the guard, identified as Matijas Zoran, fired in self-defense when several Croatian youths began climbing the consulate walls. Croatians are among several ethnic groups in Yugoslavia.
Yugoslavia's state-run Tanjug news agency said the Yugoslav government referred to the demonstrators as Ustashas, Croatian fascists who allied with Nazi Germany against Yugoslav resistance forces during World War II.