THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) – It’s not easy being Slobodan Milosevic’s lawyer.

Appointed two weeks ago to defend the former Yugoslov president against war crimes charges, British attorney Steven Kay’s practiced poise and calm legal demeanor has, at times, given way to sheer frustration.

His client doesn’t want him – in fact won’t even talk to him – and the judges won’t let him step down.

His appointment, though, has had one intended effect: It has changed the tone of the trial from Milosevic’s theatrical rhetoric to Kay’s understated professionalism.

But it failed in the judges’ other objective: To speed up a trial that has moved in fits and starts for 2½ years. After Kay questioned just three defense witnesses, the trial was adjourned for a month to allow him time to prepare a case he says is beyond any defense lawyer’s normal experience.

“The scale – it doesn’t get bigger than this,” he said recently in court.

His first goal appears to be to persuade an appeals court to remove him from the job he reluctantly took on. He’s asked that Milosevic again be permitted to represent himself, despite warnings from two cardiologists that the stress of conducting his own defense could kill him.

Denying Milosevic the right to self defense is “paternalistic,” Kay told the judges.

Standing dignified in his traditional black robe and white bib, his slightly yellowed powdered wig and reading glasses perched halfway on his nose, Kay described his difficulties representing a client who refuses to speak to him and whose witnesses refuse to appear in court unless they are examined by Milosevic himself.

“I have no lines of communication with him,” Kay told the three judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. “I am relying on people who don’t want to cooperate with me.”

The prosecution has presented its case that Milosevic orchestrated a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing during the collapse of the Yugoslav federation in an attempt to link Serbia with Serb-dominated areas of Croatia and Bosnia to create a new Greater Serbia.

In the opening statement of his defense, Milosevic dwelled on the Serb perspective of historic injustices and persecutions. Largely ignoring legal arguments, he said the Serbs had banded together against rebels and terrorists reinforced by Islamic fundamentalists and supported by the United States, Germany and the Vatican.

After the statement, the judges ruled that Milosevic was unfit to lead his defense. They cited medical reports that his chronic high blood pressure would lead to further delays and possibly cause his death. So far, the trial has been interrupted 12 times by Milosevic’s illnesses.

Milosevic protested that the court was stripping him of his fundamental right to defend himself. His aides said at least 265 of the witnesses Milosevic planned to call would refuse to testify unless the ruling was reversed.

That left Kay with the task of trying to piece together a line of defense by himself.

“I foresee great difficulty in attempting to go in cold and deal with uncooperative witnesses, attempting to find exhibits and deal with issues without support and backup from those representing his interests,” Kay told the judges.

“I am concerned that I could be forced to say, ‘This is the best I can do and that’s as far as I can get.’ I am concerned about that for international justice,” he said.

Kay is hardly going in cold, however.

Soon after Milosevic was extradited from Serbia in June 2001, Kay was named one of three amici curiae, or friends of the court, to ensure that he gets a fair trial.

From the start, Kay had an uneasy relationship with Milosevic. Two years ago, he was quoted as saying that whenever he met Milosevic in the courtroom – in his capacity as friend of the court – “I give him a smile and a nod and say hello. There is never any reply.”

AP-ES-09-18-04 1345EDT