Milosevic meeting with lawyers delayed

The prison meeting in The Hague between Slobodan Milosevic and his lawyers has been delayed because Milosevic’s luggage, which his legal team had brought from Belgrade, was lost at Amsterdam airport, one of his lawyers said.

‘‘We lost almost an hour and half on the airport because of the luggage which never arrived,’’ Tomanovic told the state Tanjug news agency, adding that they were taking two bags for Milosevic - one with books and the other with personal belongings.

The bag with his clothes he would wear tomorrow when he is to make the first appearance in front of The Hague court was not found in Amsterdam, Tomanovic said.

A former US Attorney General has offered to help Milosevic. Ramsey Clark, who served under former President Lyndon Johnson, said he was considering joining the defence team, though that he would insist that Yugoslav lawyers take the lead in the case.

Clark, who had been an outspoken opponent of Nato’s bombing campaign of Yugoslavia to force Milosevic to give up Kosovo, said he was holding talks with members of the former president’s lawyers.