Diana’s brave decision to walk through live minefield saved thousands of lives
Princess Diana made a historic trip to Angola where she was seen walking through a live minefield in just a mask and blastproof vest 25 years ago.
The image of the Princess walking through the minefield in Huambo in January 1997 has become iconic and helped influence many countries to commit to removing landmines.
At the time, Angola was one of the most mined places in the world following civil war following their countries independence from Portugal.
Her trip was to help the British Red Cross, who she was patron of, and to highlight the important work of The HALO Trust, an organisation created to remove mines.
Diana’s appearance in Angola brought the issue to a global audience and 122 countries banned the use and committed to destroying them.
Unfortunately, Diana would not be able to see the countries sign the Ottawa convention as she tragically died three months before.
Speaking to Sunday People, Mike Whitlam, former doctor general of the Red Cross, said: “We were all nervous about doing the walk, but recognised, I think, that it would get global coverage.
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“I thought, ‘I’d better walk with Diana because if she’s going to get blown up, they better blow me up as well because when I get back my life won’t be worth living’.
“She was quite adamant about wanting to do this kind of thing so she could speak about it first-hand.”
Diana spoke about the purpose of her trip to Angola and said her role was “to assist the Red Cross in its campaign to ban, once and for all, anti-personnel landmines”.
The Halo Trust estimates that more than 100,000 mines have now been removed from Angola with Huambo now declared mine-free.
In 2019, Prince Harry walked in his late mother’s footsteps as he visited Huambo, where his mother made her iconic walk through a minefield in 1997.
In 2017, Harry had already pledged to continue his mother's work by lending his support to make the world free of landmines by 2025.
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Speaking to People, Chris Whatley, HALO USA's Executive Director, said: “There's no comparison to the public attention that we get in moments like that with Prince Harry to anything else, not just HALO does, but the entire cause of organizations who work to remove landmines or to assist the victims thereafter through medical services.
"Nothing gets the attention, whether it be at the highest level of governments or whether it's the boy scout troop that makes a small contribution on which we depend, and all of that is amplified and accelerated by Prince Harry because of this dynamic relationship between who he is as his own person, his own service, his own set of causes and his unique ability to connect with people.”
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