End of Balkan War ‘Closer,’ Clinton Tells Bosnia Teen-Ager

In a televised exchange with Zlata Filipovic, the Bosnian teen-ager whose diary has made her the best-known child of the Balkan war, President Clinton said Saturday that the end of the bloody and frustrating conflict may be within reach.

“Usually people, when they start war, they say, ‘With this war, we will get things,’ ” Filipovic told the President. “But I think usually all of them lose things. And I think it’s really big stupidity. And I would like to ask you . . . is the end of that stupidity close?”

“I think it is closer,” Clinton replied. “And I agree with you.”

The exchange came in the White House East Room during a question-and-answer session between the President and a carefully selected group of elementary and high school students.

Filipovic, whose moving diary of daily life under fire in Sarajevo became a best seller and in the process helped her escape from the war-torn city, was the only non-American in the audience.

Clinton told her that he believes the federation agreement between the Bosnian government and Bosnian Croats signed Friday in Washington will help bring the conflict to a close.

The 90-minute program, televised by ABC, seemed to be a tonic to the President. Not one of the youths asked about the Whitewater investigation, the staple of Clinton’s recent exchanges with the adult press.

The most prevalent theme seemed to be violence--by adults against children and by children against each other.

Seven-year-old Annie Nichol, sister of Polly Klaas, the Petaluma girl who was kidnaped from her home and murdered, told Clinton, “I just don’t feel very safe.”

“You do live in a country that’s too dangerous,” Clinton said. “And we have to make it less dangerous. And that is a huge obligation that I feel and I think about every day. . . . I want the children of this country to be able to grow up on safe streets and safe schools and safer homes.

“When I was a kid, people beat each other up. . . . Nobody ever shot anybody,” the President said.