As President Clinton Thursday honored the 12 Americans who died as a result of the embassy bombing in Africa, the administration announced that federal employees can donate unused leave to survivors of the simultaneous blasts that shook the capitals of Kenya and Tanzania.
At a memorial ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base, Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Defense Secretary William Cohen eulogized the fallen Americans.
"The men and women who serve in our embassies all around this world do hard work that is not always fully appreciated and not even understood by many of their fellow Americans," Clinton said. "They protect our interests and promote our values abroad. They are diplomats and doctors and drivers, bookkeepers and technicians and military guards."
Clinton offered his sympathies to the families and friends who lost loved ones.
"What one classmate said to me of his friend today we can say of all of them: They were what America is all about," he said.
In a memorandum, Clinton instructed federal agencies to excuse employees from duty, without charging leave or loss of pay, who is "prevented from reporting to work or faced with a personal emergency because of the bombings and who can be spared from his or her usual responsibilities."
The Office of Personnel Management announced an emergency leave transfer program, through which federal employees can donate unused leave to survivors of the blasts so they can recover from injuries and trauma. Survivors can use the donated leave when the free time off agencies allot them runs out. Similar leave donation programs were used in the wake of the Red River flooding in April 1997, the Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995, and several other disasters in recent years.
OPM is also providing guidance on workers' compensation, retirement, health benefits and emergency premium pay to employees and families affected by the bombings.
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