Vatican Criticizes U.S., Is Prodding Noriega to Leave : Panama: American troops harass its embassy, the church complains. It calls the situation ‘a serious matter.’

The Vatican, sharply criticizing U.S. forces for harassing its embassy in Panama City, said Friday that the Pope’s emissary there is trying to persuade fugitive dictator Manuel A. Noriega to abandon the embassy but that the deposed strongman will not be forced to leave.

“Certainly Gen. Noriega is not living in a hotel, so one day or another he must leave,” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro said.

Meeting with reporters at a midday briefing, Navarro called the United States an “occupying power” in Panama with no right to envoy”interfere” with a diplomatic mission’s function there. He spoke critically of the tactics of American troops who have surrounded the embassy, located in a residential Panama City neighborhood, since Noriega sought and received sanctuary there on Christmas Eve.

The tactics have included frisking the papal emissary’s chauffeur, shooting out street lights and blasting rock music at the embassy day and night.

“In my view, this is a serious matter,” Navarro said. “If this (harassment) is going to continue, further steps should be taken,” he said. He did not elaborate on the nature of the “steps” in response to a reporter’s question.

In the United States, the White House acted to defuse the face-off between Washington and the Vatican over Noriega. Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater applauded the Roman Catholic Church for “doing a fine job” in “a very difficult situation.” He said that church authorities in Rome and in Panama have been “very cooperative with us and other countries in trying to resolve the (Noriega) issue.”

Soon after Noriega took refuge in the embassy, Vatican spokesman Navarro had predicted that the fugitive’s appeal for political asylum would be resolved in “days, not weeks.” Noting that Noriega has “temporary political refuge” in the embassy, Navarro said Friday that the Vatican is still thinking in terms of days, even if it is “20, 30 or 40 days.”

Sheltering a dictator accused of crimes against which Pope John Paul II regularly inveighs has obviously discomfited the Vatican, which is seeking to balance sentiment and law in responding to American demands for custody of Noriega.

Navarro on Friday once again defended the decision of Archbishop Jose Sebastian Laboa, the papal emissary in Panama, to accept Noriega as a decisive step toward ending the bloodshed.

“The apostolic nuncio (Laboa) is doing his best to convince Gen. Noriega to abandon the nunciature on his own, by himself,” Navarro told reporters. “At the same time, he cannot force Noriega to leave, nor can he consign him to American authorities. That would be against the principle of international law.”

Navarro insisted that under international law Noriega could not be turned over directly to the United States, which invaded Panama last week with the announced purpose of toppling Noriega and arresting him to stand trial in Florida as a drug trafficker.

“An occupying power cannot interfere with the work of a diplomatic mission, nor can it demand that a person seeking asylum in that mission be handed over to it,” Navarro said, citing international conventions on asylum subscribed to by Western Hemisphere countries, including the United States and Panama.

The papal spokesman said that ongoing talks with U.S. diplomats here at the Vatican are continuing in a cordial atmosphere that has helped make the respective positions clearer. “The climate of negotiations has improved a lot. Now we are working together,” Navarro said.

Again asserting that the Vatican has not been in contact with any third country as a possible exile for the fugitive, Navarro hinted broadly that the Vatican would welcome a request from the Panamanian government for custody of Noriega.

“If the person who seeks asylum is considered guilty of common crimes, it is up to the government of the country to which the diplomatic mission is accredited to ask for him to be handed over,” Navarro said, emphasizing that the nunciature in Panama City is accredited to the Panamanian government and is not legally answerable to U.S. occupation forces.

As generally recognized, the right of asylum covers fugitives from political strife but does not protect criminals.

Despite reports from Panama that Noriega’s successor, President Guillermo Endara, had written to the Pope asking that Noriega be expelled from the nunciature, Navarro said that no written communication--”absolutely not”--from the new Panamanian government had reached the Holy See.

“No request of any kind has arrived at the Vatican from the government of Panama up to now,” Navarro said. “I don’t know why not. Ask the post office, the telex company.”

Endara himself spent a month’s refuge at the Vatican’s mission last spring after Noriega annulled elections that Endara won decisively in the view of international observers. Navarro said Endara had made friends with Archbishop Laboa at that time but had not been in touch with him “in recent days.”

Two other former officers of the Panama Defense Forces are with Noriega in the embassy, according to the Vatican, which says they are forbidden phone calls or visitors.

American troops, who invaded Panama Dec. 20 to topple Noriega, have surrounded the mission with tanks and barbed wire. Searchlights have been set up to keep the area available for nighttime use, and visitors to the embassy are being searched.

A U.S. Army spokesman in Panama, Col. Jerry Murguia, said Friday that the Americans’ activities resulted from a tactical decision made by the commander of the American forces.

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