French officials said Sunday they have abandoned an attempt to expel the deposed Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier to the United States after the Reagan administration refused to give him refuge.
He had been booked on a flight to New York from Paris on an Air France flight Sunday afternoon.
In Washington, the State Department confirmed it had barred his entry, saying that U.S. officials had concluded that they could not guarantee Duvalier`s safety and that his presence would become a major irritant in relations between the U.S. and the new Haitian government.
But according to diplomats in Paris, Duvalier`s continued presence in France and the embarrassment it is causing the government here also risk becoming a serious cause of political tension between Paris and Washington.
On Sunday, Premier Laurent Fabius repeated his assertion that the Reagan administration is morally bound to accept Duvalier because France had agreed to give him temporary asylum for eight days at the request of the United States. The eight-day period expired on Saturday.
The premier repeated his determination to get rid of Duvalier, saying:
”The temporary must not become permanent.”
Early Sunday, the French government made arrangements to fly Duvalier, his wife and children to Paris from the hotel in Talloires, where they have been living since the U.S. flew them out of Haiti nine days ago, according to Duvalier`s lawyer and other sources.
The plan to fly them to New York was abruptly canceled after the Reagan administration said Duvalier would be refused admission if he arrived in the U.S. and would be returned to France, sources say.
”The United States has declared ex-President Duvalier an undesirable alien and will not admit him,” a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Paris said on Sunday. ”We have no intention of taking Duvalier.”
