Three weeks before her death, Princess Diana made her last public engagement to Bosnia. During her three-day trip, she met with victims of landmines as a guest of the Washington-based Landmine Survivors Network (via BBC News). In addition, she visited landmine projects in Travnic, Sarajevo, and Zenezica (via the royal family’s official site). Unlike her visit to Angola, this trip was described as “entirely private.” As BBC News reported, Diana visited the homes of landmine victims as well as local charities and specialists supporting those affected.
“It was a very brave decision for her to come here only two years after the war,” survivor Zoran Ješić told TIME. “The situation wasn’t so stable, and I had the feeling that Diana used her popularity to help people in states like mine. Her contribution on the international level was enormous.”
Diana had a particularly poignant effect on one family in the village of Dobrnja near Tuzla (via Associated Press). The Suljkanovic family suffered devastatingly from the landmines in the area after the family’s father, Muhamed, lost both his feet. The family was overjoyed to meet Diana, who celebrated Muhamed’s birthday with the Suljkanovics. After hearing she had died only a few weeks after meeting her, they named their newborn daughter after her. “They saw we have to somehow remember good people, and we remember her like that,” Muhamed said.
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