January 3, 1995

In the comfort of a flight from Belfast, Francis and Theresa S. arrived in the United States three months ago as tourists. But they had no intention of returning to their home in Northern Ireland after their sightseeing in New York was over. They were coming to stay on as illegal immigrants. Unlike the thousands of Mexicans and Central Americans clambering over the flood-lit fences of the southern border, the couple merely walked through an inspection booth at Kennedy International Airport. An immigration official, checking their passports and plane tickets, smiled and waved them in.

The official police statistics show there has been a double-digit decrease in crime in the last year in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn, with fewer rapes, robberies and car thefts. But the standard scene outside Nereida Rodriguez's apartment window has not changed much. Men deal drugs. Groups of youths, exchanging the handshakes that identify them as gang members, hang out on the street corner. The sirens of police cars and ambulances scream regularly. "My 5-year-old son sits in that window, in the morning and at night, and he asks me what those people are doing -- if they are bad, if they are going to hurt us," said Ms. Rodriguez, whose apartment looks out on Fifth Avenue. "I try to answer him as best I can. But I don't know."

Jubilant Chechen soldiers strolled through the burning center of Grozny today, waving their green separatist flag in triumph after battling Russian troops back to the edge of the city. The fight for the capital is far from over, but less than 24 hours after the Russian Defense Minister, Gen. Pavel S. Grachev, announced that his forces controlled the area around Grozny's presidential palace, the only Russians to be found there were dead soldiers and prisoners of war, according to reports from the scene.

The Current Recovery Deserves More Respect. PAGE C3. For Fed Watchers, It's a Time of Wait and Guess. PAGE C4.

CRIME RATE FALLS, BUT WORRIES PERSIST The official police statistics show there has been a double-digit decrease in crime in the last year in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn, with fewer rapes, robberies and car thefts. But the standard scene outside Nereida Rodriguez's apartment window has not changed much. Men deal drugs. Groups of youths, exchanging the handshakes that identify them as gang members, hang out on the street corner. The sirens of police cars and ambulances scream regularly. Community leaders and residents of Sunset Park say the distance between the reality of their lives and the numbers put out by the Police Department offer a telling example of the sometimes limited meaning and impact of crime statistics. A1.