Is all her effort to be forgotten?

(Princess Diana) played an important part in raising the media profile, and the respectability, of the issues of AIDS and leprosy sufferers. Most recently she lent her power to raising international awareness of the terrible toll of landmines, as part of the work of the Red Cross and other groups pushing for a worldwide ban on these indiscriminate killers.

Last Sunday morning, as news of Princess Diana's death filtered around the world, it was pictures of (her) work -- of her with severely damaged children in Angola and Bosnia -- which dominated news, and most people's thoughts. She was the British Royal who had sat down with those children, and people infected with leprosy and Aids, and showed in a public and obvious way that she cared.

And yet sadly today while attention is focused on London, the Oslo conference, which began on September 1 with the aim of drawing up a comprehensive ban on the manufacture, storage, use and sale of anti-personnel landmines, is drawing towards its end with very few signs of progress. Ironically, the mass coverage of the princess death has actually helped push the landmine conference out of the news.

But we have heard the United States is maintaining its highly- conditional and limited "support" for a ban, in which it includes, among other claims, the right to maintain landmines in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. We know that many countries, among them Poland and Kuwait, jumped on the opportunity that was offered, taking the chance to claim: "We too must have mines."

Today, as we watch the images of Princess Diana's last journey, we might spare a thought for her last cause. She took up the issue of a landmine ban very recently, and yet she supported it very strongly. What a legacy it would be if next week the Oslo conference were able to announce that it had agreed, with full U.S. support, on a total, worldwide anti-personnel landmine ban.

-- The Bangkok Post