February 13, 1993

The Bosnian Government announced today that it would refuse to accept any further deliveries of United Nations food and medical aid to Sarajevo until United Nations relief convoys begin regular deliveries to besieged Muslims in eastern Bosnia. The move appeared to have been prompted by the Clinton Administration's policy statement this week on the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The announcement, blocking virtually the only food and medicine reaching this besieged city, was made less than 36 hours after Secretary of State Warren Christopher outlined a new, tougher United States policy on Bosnia. Among other things, Mr. Christopher said the Administration had not ruled out "quite determined steps" to insure the delivery of United Nations relief supplies in this former Yugoslav republic.

The United Nations Secretary General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, is finishing a plan to bring most American troops home from Somalia by early April and replace them with a multinational corps of 15,000 to 20,000 soldiers under the command of a Turkish general, diplomats and Pentagon officials said today. The plan would leave 3,000 to 5,000 American troops under the command of a foreign officer, a departure from long-standing United States policy. The selection of a commander from Turkey addresses concerns by Washington about placing American soldiers under foreign command and by Somalia and other Arab nations about having a Muslim oversee the relief effort. Turkey, an Islamic nation, is a NATO ally of the United States.

President Clinton criticized the powerful drug industry today for pursuing "profits at the expense of our children" as he sought to assign blame for soaring health care costs and to enlist public support for his own health program. Mr. Clinton's blunt words came as he announced a proposal to spend $300 million next year to increase the number of American infants and children who get vaccines. White House officials said the effort would lead to the immunization of one million more infants and children beginning this summer.

As a starting point, hatred can be positive. Take the case of the 400 workers who lost their jobs when Stroehmann's shut down its Taystee Bread bakery in Queens seven months ago. When they started to hold their weekly meetings, it was mostly to vent their anger at bosses who had fled the city and abandoned them. They cursed their old employers. They dreamed of vengeful boycotts. They are still meeting, only now, what they talk about is setting up their own big bakery in two years time. "O.K., listen up," said Lynn Bell, addressing 35 of the unemployed workers who turned up at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Flushing. The 40-year-old former machinery cleaner and union representative was both giving news and shoring up hopes.

The New York City Police Department's transformation to community policing has been hampered by a lack of follow-up training that would help teach officers to solve persistent neighborhood crime problems, rather than simply respond to emergencies, a high-ranking police official said yesterday. Most officers are receiving only sporadic instruction, jammed in haphazardly during their daily roll-call sessions, the official said.