France Still Pressing Duvalier to Seek Asylum in Liberia Despite Rejection There

The French government Thursday continued its pressure on ousted Haitian President Jean-Claude Duvalier to request asylum in Liberia despite an announcement by that country that it has officially refused to accept him.

A spokesman for the French Ministry of External Relations made it clear that France is still not counting Liberia out as a place of refuge for the former dictator. Asked about the Liberian refusal, the spokesman said, “Keep in mind that the Liberian government’s communique used the words ‘for the time being’ when it turned down Duvalier.”

At the same time, the spokesman added that France and the United States are working together to ask other countries as well to accept Duvalier. But the French official would not name them.

If the search for an asylum in Liberia and the other countries does prove fruitless, it could lead to a new flare-up of tension between France and the United States.

Duvalier was flown from Haiti aboard a U.S. Air Force plane on Feb. 7 to what was described as temporary asylum in France. French officials talked of his remaining about eight days, and French tempers have grown short, both at Duvalier and, at times, at the United States, over Duvalier’s continuing presence in France.

It is understood that French officials have threatened to hand an expulsion order to Duvalier, who is living in a secluded luxury hotel at Talloires on Lake Annecy near Switzerland, if he continues to refuse to request asylum elsewhere. Such an order would make Duvalier an illegal person in France, subject to arrest if he refuses to leave.

Duvalier’s refusal has been the big stumbling block so far. The Reagan Administration evidently has persuaded Liberia to accept Duvalier, but the Liberians have insisted that they will do so only if Duvalier himself requests the asylum. Duvalier, insisting that he wants to remain in France or go to the United States, has refused.

American and French officials agree that when the United States asked France to accept Duvalier, there was an understanding that he would stay in France only temporarily while the United States and France looked for another home for him. American officials insist that the French were told that the United States would not provide that home.

Some French officials did not want to accept Duvalier, even temporarily, but President Francois Mitterrand overruled them. He probably felt that it was proper for France to have some role on a vital issue involving Haiti, a former French colony that uses French as its official language.

However, Mitterrand, a Socialist, cannot afford politically to give permanent shelter to a right-wing dictator, especially with key parliamentary elections looming next month.

In the beginning, American officials were sure that France would have no trouble leaning on its former colonies in Africa, all heavily dependent on France for aid. France, in the American view, could easily persuade one of them to take Duvalier. But that did not happen.

It is now clear that France became irritated with the United States for what the French saw as a failure to exert much pressure of its own. The French see Liberia as just as much an African client of the United States as the former French colonies in Africa are clients of France.