http://www.nypost.com/seven/03312008/news/...

FROM BAD TO VERSE FOR HILL
AIRPORT'S GIRL POET STUNNED BY SNIPER TALE AS INSULTED FELLOW BOSNIANS RIP 'LOW BLOW' LIE
By SELIM ALGAR, Post Correspondent

March 31, 2008 -- SARAJEVO, Bosnia - The Bosnian girl who famously read a poem to Hillary Rodham Clinton during her 1996 visit to the war-torn country is shocked - and her countrymen infuriated - that the former first lady claimed to have dodged sniper fire that day.

Emina Bicakcic, now 20 and studying to become a doctor, told The Post she stood on the tarmac at the air base in Tuzla, greeted Clinton and even had time to share the lines of verse she'd written - all without fear of attack from an unseen enemy.

"I was surprised when I heard this," Bicakcic said, referring to Clinton's assertion that she braved snipers upon landing, ducking and sprinting to military vehicles.

Other Bosnians said they had one of two reactions to Clinton's debunked action-hero account of her visit: laughter or anger.

"It's an exaggeration," said former acting President Ejup Ganic, who was present during Clinton's visit. "No one was firing. There were no shots fired."

Sema Markovic, 22, a student, said she has long respected Hillary as a strong leader but was angered by her remarks.

"It is an ugly thing for a politician to tell lies,' she said. "We had problems for years, and I don't like when someone lies about them. It makes us look bad."

Clinton has since admitted she "misspoke."

Bicakcic, asked if she feared any threat of violence that day, said she felt just the opposite.

"No," she said, speaking at her home in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. "I was just excited. I wanted to look {Clinton} in the eye and say, 'Thank you.' "

And Clinton, she said, seemed far more interested in her poem than in dashing for shelter.

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Many Bosnians - still confronted with bullet-scarred and burned-out buildings from Sarajevo to Tuzla - said their very real experiences with violence should not serve as cheap fodder for Clinton's political ambitions.

"It was a horrible lie," said 29-year-old Midhat Efendira.

Like most Bosnians, he expressed a deep appreciation of Bill Clinton for his role in ending the war. But he found Hillary Clinton's remarks intolerable.

"It was a low blow," he said. "She did it to gain sensational publicity."

Efendira said that Bosnians are closely following the US presidential race and that Hillary's remarks have damaged the formerly untouchable Clinton name in the country.

Sead Numanovic, the deputy editor-in-chief of Bosnia's largest newspaper, Dnevni Avaz, laughed at Sen. Clinton's account of the alleged sniper fire and her claim that she "misspoke."

"My first thought was, she must be kidding," he said. "When someone threatens your life, you don't make a mistake."

Numanovic said his paper has not even bothered to cover the story.

"We don't have space for someone's lies," he said. "Why is she so stupid? It doesn't portray her as a real leader."