A Look Back at Princess Diana's August 1997 Visit to Bosnia
In August 1997, just a few weeks before Princess Diana tragically died in a car crash in Paris with Dodi Al Fayed, she traveled to Bosnia as part of her campaign around landmines. In season six, episode two of The Crown depicts Princess Diana's visit to Bosnia, combining this visit with her famous walk through an active minefield. (This walk took place in Angola, not Bosnia.)
Diana's visit to Bosnia was with Landmine Survivors Network (LSN), an organization working to help victims of landmines around the world. "I am not a political figure. As I said at the time, and I'd like to re-iterate now, my interests are humanitarian. That is why I felt drawn to this human tragedy," Diana said in June 1997. "How can countries which manufacture and trade in these weapons square their conscience with such human devastation?"
Photographer Tim Rooke joined Diana on the trip, and took many of the below photos. He recounted to T&C, "The Bosnia tour I was lucky enough to accompany Princess Diana on in August 1997 is a standout trip for me. She really used her position to shine a light on and bring global attention to landmines as a part of her campaign to try and eradicate them." Here, see all the photos of Princess Diana's visit to Bosnia in August 1997:
Diana arrived at the Sarajevo airport on August 8, 1997.
Walking behind her in the background is her butler, Paul Burrell (wearing a yellow tie).
"I welcomed her at the airport. At the time, Bosnia was reported to have over one million landmines scattered around the roads and fields, and an estimated 100,000 civilians and fighters had been killed during the war between 1992 and 1995, so Princess Diana’s visit was a happy occasion for a newly emerging country eager for positive news," Ken Rutherford (pictured, right), the co-founder of Landmind Survivors Network, said years later.
During her visit, she met with the Soljankic family in the village of Dobrnja. Muhamed Suljkanovic (right) had lost his feet after stepping on a landmine a few weeks prior.
Diana meets Malic Bradoric (left, a Bosnian Muslim boy) and Zarco Beric (right, a Serbian Orthodox Christian boy), both of whom were injured by landmines, near Tuzla, Bosnia.
She spent her time speaking with Bosnian Serbs and Muslims affected by landmines near Tuzla.
Her entire visit was planned in secret. "Without warning, some people didn’t know who was in town, not immediately recognizing the Princess of Wales, or imagining she would come to their war-ravaged and impoverished village," Jerry White, the co-founder of the Landmine Survivors Network said.
"The attention my mother brought to this issue wasn’t universally popular; some believed she had stepped over the line into the arena of political campaigning—but for her this wasn't about politics; it was about people," Prince Harry would say years later.
On August 9, 1997, the second day of her visit, she toured local villages.
"Princess Diana traveled Bosnia’s back roads for nearly 72 hours without complaint, and not heeding the discomfort of road travel on not-so-good roads and meeting survivors continuously and listening emphatically to their tragic stories. She was a champion in the truest sense of the word," Rutherford said. "She was all in. Marching step-and-step, arm-in-arm, with survivors... She walked her talk."
Muhamed Suljkanovic, right, who met Diana, couldn't believe the news of her death a few weeks later. "What? I said to myself. How? Where? I could not believe it. Immediately after that I named my newborn daughter Diana, after the princess. They say we have to somehow remember good people, and we remember her like that," he said.
Here she is with Suljkanovic's family.
Princess Diana and a young girl.
Diana, on another day of her trip, meets with more survivors.
"It was a very brave decision for her to come here only two years after the war," Zoran Ješić, who was injured by mines in Bosnia, later shared. "The situation wasn’t so stable, and I had the feeling that Diana decided to use her popularity to help people in states like mine. Her contribution on the international level was enormous."
The Princess advocated for a complete ban on the production, sale, and use of land mines.
A close-up of Princess Diana in Bosnia.
Crowds followed the Princess of Wales when she visited a small village.
She greeted young children.
Diana posed for a photograph with some French soldiers at Sarajevo airport before her flight out of Saravejo.
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