Sen. Hillary Clinton's flawed account of her reception during a 1996 visit to Tuzla in Bosnia-Herzegovina has implications not only for her campaign, but also for the people there.

In describing the visit during her presidential campaign, she said she ran from sniper fire at an airport in Bosnia. Yet news videos have shown that was not the case, and Mrs. Clinton admitted the mistake this week while in Western Pennsylvania.

During the 1992-95 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tuzla, a 6,000-year-old city strove successfully to maintain peace throughout the war. Tuzla did this, in spite of having as part of its population Serbs, Croats and the majority Muslims, the elements that were fighting each other elsewhere in the country.

Much of the credit for maintaining Tuzla's ethnic peace goes to its mayor, Selim Beslagic, who was awarded the MacBride Peace Prize of the International Peace Bureau in 1996. He maintained very positive memories of Mrs. Clinton's visit to Tuzla and the aid that the city received in recognition of its track record during the war.

The senator's attempt to buff up her image as a worldly, courageous figure by cashing in on Bosnia-Herzegovina's general profile as a dangerous, war-torn country on the basis of something that did not happen is unfair to Tuzla's people.

The city did not have snipers in 1996 and it remained relatively peaceful throughout the war. Under Mr. Beslagic's leadership it was a model portion of Bosnia-Herzegovina that was not dragged, for the most part, into the ugly brutality of the conflict.

For Mrs. Clinton to suggest otherwise was misleading to Americans and an undeserved crack at Bosnians who maintained the peace under very difficult circumstances.