Silke Jasso
Prince Harry is continuing his mother’s fight against landmines.
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On Tuesday, the prince made a speech about the issue that his late mother put on the map. The Princess once made headlines when she walked through a minefield in Angola in 1997 and later visited another site in Bosnia.
“Right now the world’s lacking leadership on landmines,” Ken Rutherford, who traveled with Princess Diana during her tour of the fields told PEOPLE. “Prince Harry’s stepping into the void and following his mother’s footsteps at the right time. She injected energy and attention and political limelight. Prince Harry did the same.”
Prince Harry talked to guests at a reception in Kensington Palace of his mother’s work with the cause in a passionate speech after visiting with The HALO Trust, a charity dedicated to removing landmines.
“At the time, 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,” Harry said. “She met with those who had suffered life changing injuries as a result of anti-personnel mines, she listened to their stories and helped share them with the world.”
“He’s following in his mothers footsteps and leaving a positive legacy,” Rutherford said.
One of the last legacies Princess Diana left behind came just months after her death when the Ottawa anti-landmine treaty was signed.
