20151204

DIANA

It was reported Diana "angered many (British) backbench MPs (Members of Parliament) who feel she is straying into politics" when Diana took her anti-landmine campaign to Bosnia & Herzegovina in August 1997. It took the Dayton Peace Accords to bring the civil war in the former Yugoslavia (took place between 1992 and 1995) to an end. The war broke out because as Reuter reported in June 1992, "The Muslim Bosnians joined with Roman Catholic Croats in voting in March (1992) for independence from the crumbling Yugoslav federation. But the Orthodox Serbs, about one third of the Bosnians population, violently opposed the move." 

Hence in August 1997, Diana interrupted her widely reported summer vacation in France to visit Bosnia. Much of her vacation was spent with Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al Fayed's son, Dodi (born Imad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed). Dodi, who was also Adnan Khashoggi's nephew had worked on such movies as 'Chariots of Fire' (1981). The 3-day (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) trip to Bosnia was organized by the Landmine Survivors Network. Jerry White recalled, "When we asked the Princess of Wales to join us in Bosnia, our intention was to introduce her to families who had been blown apart by land mines." At the time, Reuter noted, "Diana, writing in 'The Mirror' tabloid, said, 'The world is too little aware of the waste of life, limb and land which anti-personnel mines are causing some of the poorest people on earth.'"

Former cabinet minister W.F. Deedes wrote in 'The Daily Telegraph' in September 1997, "We had first discussed this Bosnia trip early this year (in 1997), before she made the expedition to Angola in January. Angola was not, Diana insisted, to be seen as a one-off. If you are going to concern yourself with the consequences of man's inhumanity to man as closely as the Princess of Wales desired to do, Sarajevo is a place to go." Jerry remembered, "I was stunned. The more we allowed her to work and to be appropriate and just reached out with people, with her hand, with hugging, with touching and not being afraid of anyone, the more I saw something really special happening in this family's home. It was something to step back and learn from."

Lord Deedes observed, "Part of her gift in bringing comfort to those in anguish lay in this sensitive awareness of when silence is best. She was not a voluble sympathiser, quite the reverse. I found some of the tales we had to hear almost unendurable. Yet I never saw her lose this calm, which plainly had a most soothing effect. As I reported at the time, she saw dreadful wounds, heard horrifying stories while maintaining the demeanour of a professional but sympathetic nurse."

Of Diana's visit, the United Nations spokesman Alexander Ivanko told the press, "What's important is to draw attention to the fact that we are lacking $16 million in mine efforts here, and without them we won't be able to train, equip and sustain de-mining activities." It was reported on the day of Diana's visit, "the World Bank said it was financing a $16.2 million effort, with de-mining units on both the Serb and Muslim-Croat sides of the former front lines."

"I am a humanitarian," Diana, moving in the global media village had said. Coming along with Diana, "afforded (Lord Deedes) an opportunity to witness, at uncomfortably close range, the dichotomy of Diana's attitude to photographers. She accepted the value of photographers in her life, and acknowledged the inestimable value they held for good causes. I had a camera of my own for taking snapshots. She was fairly happy with this, but liked me to tell her when pictures were being taken." At the time Diana was the world's most visible advocate of banning land mines. "She was a star," one American in Paris remarked. "There was none bigger."

James Whitaker made known, "Well, by the time that Diana died and in fact I'm afraid a few years before, the Royal family has really given up on Diana. They found her a complete and utter menace and was a threat to the throne . . . She has her court which was becoming more and more powerful. Really she was taking on the Royal family." Diana had argued on the television 'Panorama' program in 1995, "I think every strong woman in history has had to walk down a similar path, and I think it's the strength that causes the confusion and the fear. Why is she strong? Where does she get it from? Where is she taking it? Where is she going to use it? Why do the public still support her?"

Working for Diana, Patrick Jephson believed, "I think if you have worked in a profession that has hierarchical structure than that help and, certainly, something like the Royal navy has a very clear hierarchy. And having operated in that for more than a decade, I was quite at home working in a hierarchical organization like the Royal household. That means that you're used to taking orders but more often given orders too."

It was reported in August 2000, "Her interest helped lead to an international treaty to ban the mines, signed by 137 nations. Many of the world's governments are now (in 2000) working to remove about 70 million land mines in 70 nations. The U.S. didn't sign the treaty but will contribute $11 million this year (2000) toward the removal of land mines." When writing the word "live" backward it would read "evil". Diana maintained, "We must end the use of these evil weapons – the only solution is a total worldwide ban on land mines." In November 1997, the government in Sarajevo issued a special commemorative stamp in honor of Diana who traveled there to visit families of landmine victims.   

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