Just two days into their attempts to defend Slobodan Milosevic, British lawyers appointed to represent the former Yugoslav leader said that witnesses are refusing to testify because the court will not let him present his own case.

Slobodan Milosevic’s court-appointed lawyers called the first witness in his defence case today, even though the former Yugoslav president refused to meet with them.

Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is refusing to co-operate with two British lawyers appointed to defend him before the United Nations war crimes tribunal – even as they prepare to call the first witness in his defence case.

Two British lawyers are to act for former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic at the UN war crimes tribunal where doctors say his heart condition could become life threatening if he continues to represent himself.