U.S. Revokes Visas Held by Duvalier’s Entourage

The Reagan Administration has revoked the American visas of members of the entourage that accompanied deposed Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier to France to prevent them from trying to gain refuge in the United States, a State Department official said Tuesday.

The official, who declined to be identified by name, said that several members of Duvalier’s party had held U.S. visas, although the exiled president-for-life had not.

The action produced a sudden panic among members of the party holed up in a luxury hotel in the French Alps, where they have overstayed by four days France’s offer of asylum for a week.

Duvalier’s sister-in-law, Joanne Thiesfield, placed a telephone call to a reporter for The Times on Tuesday morning to complain:

“Your people are giving us real trouble today. The Americans have revoked our non-immigrant visas, all of them, even the children. We’re very hurt. Haiti and the president (Duvalier) have always been good friends and allies of the United States, and we can’t understand why they should suddenly treat us this way.”

Thiesfield, who serves as personal secretary to her sister, Duvalier’s wife, Michele, said with apparent agitation: “No way are we going to get on an Air France flight anywhere, because they will say they are taking us somewhere and then hijack us to Liberia or Ghana or someplace like that. And none of us are willing go to anywhere in Africa. We want to stay here or go to the United States.”

Liberia, a West African nation with a policy of granting political asylum to any black who requests it, is the only country that has offered to take in Duvalier and his family.

Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb said that 365 metric tons of food aid is already is on its way to impoverished Haiti and that an additional 4,700 metric tons will be shipped before the end of this month under a $25-million-a-year food program, suspended during the final days of Duvalier’s regime.

Furthermore, Kalb said, a decision is expected soon on the release of $26 million in economic assistance that was impounded because of human rights abuses by the 28-year Duvalier family dynasty.

France has made it clear that it wants to be rid of Duvalier and his retinue as soon as possible. Over the weekend, French officials suggested that they were prepared to send Duvalier to the United States if no other country would agree to accept him. But Washington objected to the tactic and Paris backed off.

“Duvalier is inadmissible as an undesirable and undocumented alien,” Kalb said Tuesday. “We have been working together with the French and with others to find a home for Duvalier, and we hope to continue that cooperation.”

The dictator himself had never left Haiti before he was whisked off the island Feb. 7 on a U.S. Air Force C-141. For this reason, he had never applied for a U.S. visa. But many of those around him were frequent visitors to the United States and held valid multiple-re-entry visas before the cancellation.

The State Department official said it was necessary to revoke the permits because, under U.S. immigration law, a well-financed alien who was allowed to enter the country could delay deportation for years through legal maneuvers. Without visas, Duvalier’s aides could be turned away without gaining the legal right to appeal their deportation.

Asked about Duvalier’s refusal to consider making his home in Liberia, the official said, “I don’t think you can pick and choose where you will get refuge.”

Hans Thiesfield, Joanne Thiesfield’s husband, said the former dictator would prefer to remain in France because he does not speak English. But, Thiesfield said, “The rest of us would love to live in America, and besides, he (Duvalier) can learn English if we go to the United States.”

Kalb, despite his description of Duvalier as “undesirable,” said Washington is not prepared to totally abandon the man who fled his homeland after U.S. officials convinced him that he could not hold onto power without massive violence and repression--and probably not even then.

The United States feels some obligation to help Duvalier find a place of refuge outside of either the United States or France, he said.

Norman Kempster reported from Washington and Bella Stumbo from Los Angeles.