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.

SLOBODAN Milosevic’s trial was in jeopardy yesterday after a medical report raised the possibility that he could be declared unfit to continue the trial and perhaps even freed.