Education officials don't usually have to make life-or-death decisions on the job. But for Enver Halilovic, who was responsible for education in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the war there, moral questions loomed over his every mandate.

"This was a real human problem as well as a moral problem, deciding whether or not children should go to school," he recently told students in a European history class at Cornell University. Though the United Nations had identified Tuzla as one of six "safe areas" in Bosnia, he said, it was shelled regularly by Serbian forces -- who often targeted schools.

"I insisted that schools remain open throughout the war. Of course, I was constantly worried about what would happen. I set it up so that children wouldn't go to school every day. They spent much of their time learning in 'basement schools,' gathering in the basements of their apartment buildings, where they were generally safer and would not have to leave every day," Halilovic said.

Still, shelling by Serbian forces killed many children in Tuzla, Halilovic said. Those who could study did so under terrible conditions: "One book served a number of children, and one notebook had to be enough for an entire family." Sometimes, books served as tools not of learning but of survival: "Books were used for fuel, to provide heat." Halilovic, the minister of education, culture and sport of the canton of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the dean of the philosophy faculty at the University of Tuzla, is spending this month at Cornell to share his experiences and forge relationships that might lead to greater exchange of knowledge and resources between the two universities. He was brought to Cornell by John Weiss, associate professor of history and co-director of Cornell's Institute for European Studies, which is sponsoring Halilovic's stay. In lectures and interviews spoken in Bosnian (Serbo-Croatian) and translated by Cornell faculty, Halilovic has been sharing his memories and projections for the future. EDITORS: This news release resulted from conversations translated by E. Wayles Browne, Cornell associate professor of linguistics and a specialist in Slavic languages.

Things were no better at the University of Tuzla than they were in the elementary schools, Halilovic said. But despite the shelling of one of its libraries, the razing of laboratories, and the filling of student dormitories with refugees, the university remained open, and students remained determined to continue their studies.

"The students felt a stronger readiness to work and study hard," Halilovic said. "They felt this was the way they could contribute to the liberation of the country, as well as their own liberation."

War and Sartre

Halilovic, who is a Bosnian Muslim, lost friends and relatives during the war like nearly everyone in his country. His wife and two children were spared, but the native of Sjenica, Serbia, doesn't know whether his father is still alive, and he just spoke to his mother for the first time in five years (from Ithaca).

"My definition of a philosopher is one who is concerned with things that don't touch him directly, but that touch the community," said Halilovic, a specialist on the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre and Jacques Merleau-Ponty. "So I didn't do much philosophical research during the war." But he did do a lot of thinking -- and his thinking was dramatically affected by what he witnessed.

"The war gave me a new way of looking at things. I wondered, what in peoples' psyche is it that makes them irrational and destructive? What can one think about a person who would aim shells at a kindergarten? I was constantly thinking about these issues. The war gave me a better understanding of existentialism and a better way to address questions about the role of the individual and his place in the community." Halilovic, the author of 1991's Sartre's Criticism of Stalinism (which was banned by the then-socialist government), continued, "Sartre was disappointed after his visit to the Soviet Union. He abandoned the view that socialism had something in common with humanism and began to stress the ties between Stalinism and all other types of socialism that had existed so far." Because Halilovic's book expounded these views, it could not be published until 1991 - - when the Communist Party was defeated and Bosnia held its first free elections.

Halilovic said he shares with Sartre a commitment to "the struggle for humanism and human rights. Sartre said committed intellectuals react to current political events from the viewpoints of humanism and of their own specialties. He did not accept the position of an 'art-for-art's-sake' or ivory-tower intellectual, and so he reacted to all the political events of his time -- such as the Nazi attack on France (he belonged to the Resistance movement in 1943-44), the crushing of student demonstrations in Eastern Europe in 1968 and the war in Vietnam. He wrote letters to all the influential world figures who he thought could and should influence the outcomes of social and historical events like those I've mentioned.

"My studies of Sartre left deep traces on my own personality and my world view," Halilovic said, "and this prepared me to take a committed role in public events during the Bosnian war."

Looking Ahead

Since the Dayton peace accord was reached last fall, Halilovic is cautiously optimistic about his country's future. But he said peace can last only if the United States extends its military presence in Bosnia beyond the scheduled withdrawal in December 1996, and only if Bosnian citizens can safely return to their homes.

Though many Bosnian citizens remain bitter about the world's slowness to respond to the crisis in the Balkans and about the arms embargo that prevented them from defending themselves against the Serbs, Halilovic said, they are heartened by the international war crimes tribunal at The Hague -- which has indicted Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic for committing atrocities in the former Yugoslavia.

"The tribunal is already creating an impression of justice," Halilovic said. "Karadzic and Mladic have committed evils against not only the Bosnians and Croats, but against the Serbs. The war crimes tribunal should be their political funeral."

He also expressed optimism about efforts to rebuild Bosnia's schools and the University of Tuzla. Halilovic is working with colleagues to create a department of English and courses in American history and said he would greatly appreciate donations of books on these subjects from the Cornell and Ithaca communities. Books can be donated to the Institute for European Studies in 120 Uris Hall.

"Education is a very big problem, particularly in terms of textbooks," he said, "and any help in this area would be welcome."