France May Send Duvalier to U.S. Today

Exiled Haitain dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier will be expelled from France today and sent to the United States, it was reported Saturday.

“We are being kicked out tomorrow (Sunday),” a member of Duvalier’s family told Times reporter Bella Stumbo in a telephone conversation at the French resort of Talloires. Duvalier and his entourage have been staying there since they fled Haiti on Feb. 7 following widespread demonstrations.

The Washington Post, quoting what it said were well-placed French sources, reported that Duvalier and his followers will be be put on an Air France plane this morning for New York unless another country was willing to accept him.

The move is in line with France’s decision to agree to a U. S. request to accept the Duvalier group on a temporary basis while a search was launched for another haven for the fallen dictator.

About half a dozen countries had turned down requests by Paris and Washington to provide a permanent home for Duvalier and his family. Liberia had indicated it would consider taking Duvalier, but he reportedly rejected the offer. French External Relations Minister Roland Dumas had insisted in a communication to Secretary of State George P. Shultz that the agreement with the United States be carried out, the Post reported.

Deputy State Department spokesman Charles Redman declined to comment on the report when asked about it by The Times.

“Anything I can say now would be speculative,” Redman said in Washington. He said the information given to The Times was probably accurate “for the present.” He added, “But I can’t say now how it will come out; things are still being worked on.”