The New York Times

Wednesday, July 7, 1999

U.S. Judge Joins War Crimes Court

By The Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- Patricia M. Wald, a judge on the District of Columbia federal appeals court, will join the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal as a judge, the U.N. court said Wednesday.

Wald, 70, will replace outgoing U.S. judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, president of the 14-judge tribunal, who is leaving the court Nov. 17.

Wald, a graduate of Connecticut College and Yale Law School, served as a law clerk to Judge Jerome N. Frank of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and as assistant attorney general for legislative affairs in the Department of Justice before being appointed a judge in 1979.

She has served on the District of Columbia court of appeals ever since, including a term as chief judge from July 1986 until January 1991.

Wald, who was appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan after consultations with the U.N. Security Council and the General Assembly, will serve until November 2001 with The Hague-based tribunal.

The U.N. court was set up in 1993 to bring to justice those responsible for war crimes committed since 1991 in the former Yugoslavia.