June 3, 1994

The banner across the entrance to the red brick church here announces the celebration of a festival. A poster of Pope John Paul II is tacked on the main door and above it is a large white statue of Jesus, his arms beckoning. Inside are the remains of victims of a mass slaughter carried out by Government-trained militiamen in mid-April. In what they had hoped would be a refuge from the deadly irrationality of tribal and political violence, more than 500 members of the Tutsi tribe found their way to the church compound only to be shot or hacked to death by Hutu soldiers in classrooms, bathrooms and courtyards, and then left to rot.

HIGH up on Fifth Avenue, behind the limestone curtain that still serves as both a structural and a social wall in this city, an exhibition of paintings, drawings, sculpture and books related to Edith Wharton's New York is on display at the National Academy of Design. Although the milieu invoked in this exhibition has evolved since Wharton's day, the struggle laid out in these rooms remains vivid and compelling in the way that the story of rebellion often does. It was once said of Edith Wharton and her friend Theodore Roosevelt that that they were both self-made. This is the true subject at the National Academy: how Edith Wharton, born into Old New York of the 1860's and raised in it during the 1870's and 1880's, found her way out of it -- and fully into her own life -- by the first decade of this century. To the argument that the Wharton career has been too ubiquitous of late ("The Age of Innocence" and "Ethan Frome" filmed; her last unfinished novel, "The Buccaneers," completed and published; the woman herself impersonated onstage by Irene Worth), the answer is that here, refreshingly, is a collection of iconography contemporary to Wharton's actual New York. Without the intervention of director, actor or footstep-following writer, it conjures a visual field in which to set Wharton, one that would have been instantly familiar to the woman herself.

After reading the character references provided by a lustrous array of judges and lawyers, a reasonable person could conclude that Theodore H. Friedman, a 63-year-old personal injury lawyer, all but walked on water. Brilliant, said many of the 67 writers. Meticulous. A generous friend, whom many had met through his wife, Eve Preminger, a judge in Surrogate's Court. A ferocious, rough-tongued adversary. But above all, they wrote, Ted Friedman was scrupulously ethical. The letter writers included the chief judge of New York's Court of Appeals, Judith S. Kaye, Federal District Judge Jack B. Weinstein, and the journalists Calvin Trillin, Murray Kempton and Sidney Zion.

HAITIAN MIGRANTS SETTLE IN, LOOKING BACK The image of Haitians as boat people misrepresents the diversity of a small, entrenched immigrant group concentrated in the New York and Miami metropolitan areas. They include not only migrant workers in Homestead, Fla., but wealthy doctors on Long Island, not only taxi drivers in Manhattan but college professors in Washington. A1. CUOMO STARTS CAMPAIGN WITH AN ATTACK Gov. Mario M. Cuomo kicked off his campaign for a fourth four-year term with a speech that included a list of accomplishments, an acknowledgement that he had not reached all his goals, and a broad attack on Republicans, both in New York and elsewhere, for practicing the politics of division. A1.

U.N. Panel Accuses Serbs Of Genocide in Bosnia Ending a long inquiry, a United Nations commission accused Bosnian Serbs of "crimes against humanity" and "genocide" against Muslims and Croats. Its findings go to a war-crimes tribunal. Page A3. Rostenkowski Seeks Lawyer Dan Rostenkowski is replacing the lawyer who last week failed to persuade him to accept a plea agreement with Federal prosecutors. Page A18. Warning on Teacher Layoffs District superintendents say Mayor Giuliani's budget will mean laying off hundreds of teachers. Page B1. Rangers Tie Series Glenn Anderson's shorthanded goal sparked the Rangers to a 3-1 victory over the Canucks. Page B11. Graf Upset in French Open Mary Pierce beat Steffi Graf in the semifinals, halting Graf's string of Grand Slam titles at four. Page B11.