MIME-Version: 1.0 Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 12:32:38 -0400 Reply-To: Tribunal Watch List Sender: Tribunal Watch List From: ROCHUS PRONK Subject: Peter Backes To: TWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by acc.haverford.edu id OAA06740

I noticed that in all the condolances on TWATCH with regard to the tragic helicopter crash last week, no mention was made of my friend Peter Backes, the personal assistant to Dr Schwarz-Schilling (the International Mediator for the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovinia).

Peter was a young lawyer from Germany who for the last two years had dedicated himself tirelessly to mediation efforts in the Bosnian Federation. In 1995 he had received a Master of Laws degree from the Washington College of Law (WCL) [American University], an academic institution that, as many of you probably know, has been actively trying to support the work of the War Crimes Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Peter was a great friend of WCL's human rights community.

Almost every time Peter returned from his trips to Bosnia, he would call me at WCL (where until recently I was coordinating the War Crimes Research Office) and he would explain me again that the only solution to the problems in Bosnia was the arrest of war criminals. Peter traveled to Bosnia frequently to assist Dr Schwarz-Schilling in the mediation efforts, and after every trip he became more and more convinced of the urgency that is needed to arrest the criminals. He also believed strongly that the Tribunal should issue many more indictments than it has so far. "We have to remove those all those criminals from places of power because they are obstructing the implementation of the Dayton agreement" he would tell me again and again.

Peter became so engaged with the problems in Bosnia that over the last two years he could often talk about nothing else. It was his life. Before his last trip to Bosnia, however, he called me in The Hague and said that he felt it was time for him to do something else.

The human rights community of the Washington College of Law has lost one of its biggest friends. We will always miss him.

On behalf of WCL's Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Rochus J.P. Pronk The Hague