Prisoner Swap Fails Between Serbs, Croats

Serbs and Croats failed to make a planned exchange of 70 prisoners Monday while Croatia blocked Yugoslav federal efforts to deploy cease-fire observers on its territory.

Irfan Ajanovic, an official for the commission set up to enforce the Aug. 7 truce, said the prisoner swap was delayed because the Serbs did not have time to gather their captives from detention centers in the republic and that both sides disagreed about which prisoners should be handed over.

Ajanovic said the task of authorities has been complicated because both sides were still taking captives despite the cease-fire.

He said Croatian officials, who have complained that the commission is biased toward Serbs, were blocking plans to send observers into flash-point areas in Croatia to monitor the cease-fire.

In other developments Monday:

* In Washington, U.S. Customs Commissioner Carol Hallett said Andjelko Jurkovic of Chicago, one of four men arrested last week in a weapons sting, was linked to OTPOR, a Croatian terrorist group believed based in Chicago. The four were trying to export $12 million worth of Stinger missiles and other arms to Croatia, she said.

* Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and leaders of Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina called for a new constitution in a step toward forming a federation dominated by the Serbs.

The Soviet republic of Georgia recognized Slovenia, which declared independence June 25, and offered to establish immediate diplomatic ties.