The UN war crimes court will not force former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to accept a defence lawyer against his will in the trial against him.

Yugoslav army forces made no attempt to dislodge ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo in 1999, but instead sought revenge against civilians who supported them, the former British defence attache in Belgrade told Slobodan Milosevic’s war crimes trial today.

The former commander of the Yugoslav army is on his way to the Netherlands today to surrender to the UN War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague.

The army mounted a heavy artillery attack to push ethnic Albanian rebels northward, but the scene in Shipkovica, a hill town above Macedonia’s second-largest city, reflected a rebel force ready to stay put and step up their fight.

Nato is considering letting Yugoslav forces help keep ethnic Albanian rebels out of Macedonia following clashes there this week.