Belgrade, April 25, SPA -- One of the most trusted allies of former President Slobodan Milosevic, theex-Yugoslav army chief Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, was tosurrender to the U.N. war crimes tribunal Monday. Pavkovic, who has been charged in connection withatrocities committed in Kosovo, left for the Netherlands ina government plane accompanied by a Serbian governmentminister, said an official who spoke on condition ofanonymity. Before surrendering to the U.N. court in The Hague,Pavkovic will make a stopover in Rotterdam for a medicalcheckup, the official said. Pavkovic is reportedlyseriously ill and needs medical attention while in custody. The general's surrender to the Netherlands-based courtcomes as Serbia awaits European Union approval for its bidto eventually start membership talks with the bloc. The EUhas said that a positive response will depend on Pavkovic'sextradition. Pavkovic, who commanded the military in Kosovo during the1998-99 war there, was charged in 2003 for war crimescommitted during the conflict between the Serb securityforces and ethnic Albanian separatists. Thousands of ethnic Albanians were killed during the war.The brutality of the Serb onslaught prompted NATO tointervene in 1999 to force Milosevic to pull his troops outof Kosovo. Pavkovic's indictment alleges that troops under hiscommand "murdered hundreds of Kosovo Albanian civilians... that resulted in the forced deportation ofapproximately 800,000 Kosovo Albanian civilians fromOctober 1998 until June 1999." Three more Serb army and police generals have beenindicted along with Pavkovic. Two are awaiting trial whileone remains at large. Kosovo has been an international protectorate since 1999,run by the United Nations and NATO-led peacekeepersalthough it officially remains a province of Serbia.--SPA1346 Local Time 1046 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/257784