Vatican Refuses to Turn Noriega Over to U.S.

Resisting American diplomatic pressure, the Vatican said Wednesday that it will not turn deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega over to the United States. But U.S. officials said they still hope to change Pope John Paul II’s mind, and President Bush may send a special envoy to Rome to argue the case.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro suggested that the Holy See might consider handing Noriega over to Panama’s new government, but he said that regime has made no official request. Noriega, who is wanted by the United States on drug-trafficking charges, took refuge at the home of the papal nuncio in Panama on Christmas Eve.

“Based on my knowledge of international law and diplomatic procedures, I cannot see any possible way in which a nuncio accredited to one country, in this case Panama, can hand over to another state someone who has taken refuge,” Navarro told reporters.

Navarro said the Holy See has not contacted any other countries in search of a comfortable exile for Panama’s former dictator. However, one of Noriega’s U.S. lawyers said the nuncio asked him to find a country that will grant refuge to the deposed strongman--a sign that exile abroad is still a possible solution to the three-day-old impasse.

Both U.S. and Vatican officials said diplomatic contacts continued Wednesday, and Navarro said the Vatican expects the deadlock over Noriega’s fate to be resolved “in days, not weeks.”

Bush, beginning a six-day hunting vacation in Texas, told reporters that he has placed “no time limit” on the effort to bring Noriega to trial in the United States.

“I am determined to bring him to justice,” Bush said at a barbecue at Beeville. “We have to work with our friends in the Vatican. We have to work with respect (for) the new Endara government in Panama.”

Earlier, Bush suggested that if Noriega flees to another country, the United States will seek his extradition. “We will obviously want to see him extradited to the United States, and that may determine where he ends up,” Bush said, apparently hinting that the Administration might accept an arrangement under which Noriega moved to a country that has an extradition treaty with the United States.

“But look,” Bush added, “at this point, we’re still going down the road of trying to get him sent here.”

Panama’s new president, Guillermo Endara, said Wednesday that his country’s constitution forbids the extradition of Panamanian nationals, but he indicated that a loophole might be provided by the 1904 treaty that allowed the United States to build the Panama Canal.

U.S. officials have said that Endara has shown no enthusiasm for prosecuting Noriega in Panama, and they contend that the new Panamanian regime would prefer to find a way to maneuver the deposed general into U.S. custody.

“Panama is not anxious to have him right now, when the new government is not in complete control,” one Pentagon official said. For the time being, he added, “they like him neutralized where he is.”

Publicly, Endara on Wednesday called for the papal nuncio to cast Noriega out so he can be tried for “common crimes of the worst sort.” He did not indicate where he believed such a trial should take place.

Bush and other Administration officials emphasized that they are still working on the Vatican to hand Noriega over to U.S. authorities--perhaps in an indirect way.

“We know what the Vatican has said publicly, but we don’t have any official response from them yet,” one senior official said. “There may be some wiggle room in their position. We believe they want to find a solution that is mutually satisfactory.”

At this point, he said, the Administration would reject a suggestion that Noriega be given refuge in another country--although, he acknowledged, “the President could decide to change that.”

One of Noriega’s U.S. attorneys, Raymond Takiff of Miami, said that officials at the Vatican Embassy asked him “to help find a third country” where Noriega could find refuge.

Takiff said he refused, saying that aiding Noriega, a fugitive, to escape “would be a violation of U.S. law.”

But the request revealed that Vatican officials--at least in Panama--are actively seeking a new home for the deposed general.

Two Offers

Cuba and Peru already have said they would grant Noriega refuge, although the government of Peru subsequently denied making the offer. Spain, which offered Noriega a haven in 1988 as part of an abortive deal worked out with the Reagan Administration, and the Dominican Republic have both said that they would extradite Noriega to the United States.

Indeed, the papal nuncio in Panama has not yet granted Noriega formal asylum but instead has given him only temporary, informal refuge. Vatican spokesman Navarro said the Holy See is still considering the “judicial, humanitarian and political” aspects of Noriega’s case.

The decision to admit Noriega was made by the nuncio, Archbishop Jose Sebastian Laboa, under his own initiative after Noriega promised to end his resistance to the American invasion, Navarro said. The Vatican spokesman portrayed the action as a successful attempt to help end violence.

Under the rules of his refuge, Noriega is not allowed either phone calls or visitors, Navarro said. Noriega’s attorney, Takiff, confirmed that he was not allowed to speak with Noriega when he telephoned the embassy.

Pope John Paul II is being kept informed of events but is not directly involved, Navarro said.

The spokesman and other diplomats who are working on the Noriega matter disputed a report that the Bush Administration had expressed its demands in extraordinarily tough terms.

“There has been no element at all that could be called a situation of strain, tension or misunderstanding,” Navarro said.

“Our case is forceful, but it was made in friendly, businesslike terms,” one U.S. diplomat said.

Thomas P. Melady, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, met Wednesday to press the U.S. case with Archbishop Angelo Sodano, a diplomat specializing in Latin American affairs at the Vatican’s secretariat of state.

Diplomats said the United States has provided the Vatican with bulky documentation and legal briefs detailing its charges against Noriega and its claim for his capture.

Navarro said any contacts with third countries would be premature. In Latin America, where political asylum is a tradition, refugees sheltered in embassies normally leave after safe conduct out of the country is negotiated with the government they are fleeing.

In Noriega’s case, Navarro noted, it is uncertain who would issue a safe conduct--the Endara government, the Bush Administration or the U.S. armed forces.

At a brief news conference in Corpus Christi, Tex., where he had flown to start his vacation, Bush said that if the Vatican decided it could not turn Noriega over to the United States, “that complicates things.” But he refused to criticize the Holy See’s position, “especially at this time of year, especially since it’s the Vatican.”

He said he would not stand in the way of any attempt by the Endara government to take control of Noriega, but added, “That’s not the way it appears to be leaning.

“We don’t want to do anything that implies undermining the sovereign power of Panama or the fact that this government is operating with the trust of the people,” the President said.

Asked whether Noriega would remain a threat if he stays in Panama, the President said: “That would concern me, yes--unless he were in total custody and sentenced to the prison sentence he deserves.”

Bush said he has no fears that information the former strongman would disclose in court might be embarrassing to Bush or the U.S. government.

Montalbano reported from Vatican City and McManus reported from Washington. Times staff writers James Gerstenzang, in Texas, and Ronald L. Soble and Robin Wright, in Washington, contributed to this story.