
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 28, 1993                   TAG: 9309280130
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: UNITED NATIONS                                LENGTH: Medium

CLINTON: U.N. MUST `SAY NO'

President Clinton told the United Nations on Monday that the American people will support sending U.S. troops to keep peace around the world only if new missions are sharply limited. "The United Nations must know when to say `no,"' he declared.

Noting that he is the first president born after creation of the organization, Clinton insisted on new rules for "new times" as he outlined his foreign policy views with a mixture of caution and high purpose.

Clinton is prepared to send as many as 25,000 American troops to Bosnia if peace terms can be worked out, and he defended keeping 4,700 U.S. soldiers in Somalia. But he told the representatives of more than 180 nations that the U.N. must limit its involvement in international fighting, beginning "by bringing the rigors of military and political analysis to every U.N. peace mission."

He also proposed a network of nuclear arms restraints, including a worldwide ban on stockpiling of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium. Yet he hinted he might abandon his 3-month-old ban on underground weapons blasts if China resumed its testing program.

At a news conference later with Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, Clinton said the United States sent troops to Somalia in December "with our eyes open" but "may have underestimated" the difficulty of restoring political stability. "I still believe President Bush made the right decision," he said.

He also listed conditions for deploying American forces to a NATO peacekeeping unit in Bosnia.

"I would want a clear understanding of what the command and control was and I would want the NATO commander in charge of the operations," Clinton said. "I would want a clear timetable for first review and ultimately for the right to terminate American involvement."

Clinton said there would have to be "a clear political strategy" for the peacekeeping mission, and the deployment would have to be endorsed by Congress.

"We would have to know what our financial responsibilities are," the president said. "Then we would have to know that others would do their part as well."

Elaborating on his speech, Clinton said none of the current peacekeeping missions was "ill founded" but that "there are limits to what we can do" in the future. "I want to see us go into these things with our eyes open," he said.

Georgia, the former Soviet republic now in turmoil, is one chaotic situation "we may or may not be able to see the U.N. go into."

Earlier, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told reporters that Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid is a necessary participant in negotiations over the future of the African country, and killing him would not be a good idea.

The Clinton administration holds Aidid - who is in hiding - responsible for the slayings of several American and Pakistani soldiers and has been determined to have him brought to justice.

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by CNB