Duvalier Applies for Asylum in France

Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier filed a formal request Thursday for political refugee status that would allow him and his family to reside permanently in France.

Duvalier, 34, has been staying at a luxury hotel in the French Alps since fleeing his country last Friday, but the French government has said he cannot stay.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday that France’s ambassador to Liberia has been instructed to ask the West African country to take in Duvalier, who has said he does not want to live there.

Would Consider Request

The French Foreign Ministry spokesman said that ambassador Jean Thomas would meet with Liberian authorities in Monrovia, adding, “We are waiting for a response.”

A spokesman for Liberian President Samuel K. Doe said Thursday that his country has not offered Duvalier asylum but would consider any formal request made by him. Duvalier said Wednesday he “is not interested” in living in Liberia.

News reports said Duvalier was coming under strong pressure to leave France. The French spokesman, however, denied that pressure was being placed on Duvalier.

“We don’t need to pressure Duvalier since we have said from the beginning his departure would be rapid,” he said. “That is very clear.”

‘Not Our Problem’

As to Duvalier’s reluctance to leave, the spokesman said, “That is not our problem. Our problem is to act so that he stays as short a time as possible. As soon as we find a country, he will go.”

Duvalier, his wife, Michele, and more than 20 relatives and security guards are isolated in the Hotel Abbaye on Lake Annecy in southeast France. The entire 40-room hotel has been reserved for Duvalier’s entourage. Police guard all three entrances and allow only employees to enter.

Duvalier, in a telegram addressed to the central government’s senior official in the Haute Savoie region, said a formal request for asylum has been filed with the French Office for the Protection of Refugees.

A copy of the message was handed to journalists by Jean-Claude Tiffenat, owner of the hotel where Duvalier is staying.

Earlier Letter

It said that Duvalier’s attorney, Sauveur Vaisse, informed the French External Relations Ministry of the move in a letter sent Wednesday.

Aside from a brief telephone interview with state-run French television, the message was Duvalier’s first public communication since his arrival in France aboard a U.S. Air Force plane from Haiti.