Wednesday, March 31, 1999; Page A25

Correspondents for The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Knight-Ridder newspaper chain were detained in the Yugoslav city of Uzice for 6 1/2 hours yesterday and then expelled to Bosnia under police escort.

Yugoslav police said the journalists' visas allowing repeated visits were no longer valid due to the country's state of war with NATO.

The three correspondents, all American citizens, were traveling by auto to the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, from Podgorica, capital of the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro, when they stopped for lunch. A local resident complained to police about the presence of a car carrying foreigners, and police forced the three to drive to headquarters.

Those expelled were R. Jeffrey Smith, the Washington Post's bureau chief in Rome; David Holley, the Los Angeles Times' Warsaw bureau chief; and Lori Montgomery, Knight-Ridder's Berlin bureau chief.

All three were questioned, but a Yugoslav translator traveling with them was subjected to the longest interrogation. She was allowed to choose whether to leave the country, and decided to do so.

While the four were in custody, police searched their vehicle twice, photocopied some of their notes, and employed a computer expert to review files stored in their laptop computers.

Editors from all three news organizations made phone calls vigorously protesting the detention, and appealed to Deputy Prime Minister Vuk Draskovic and other top Yugoslav officials to let the correspondents go to Belgrade. They were told a Yugoslav general who controls visa matters had rejected the appeals.

Smith was the second Washington Post correspondent expelled from Yugoslavia since NATO's air assault began a week ago. Peter Finn was sent out Thursday.

While authorities have permitted several U.S. journalists to remain in Belgrade, border police have barred many other correspondents who hold visas from entering the country in the past two days.