The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 7

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1997 '1?" 1 ssmi D1X8D3) 11 PsaDpo's PlrflDllffi vao iJ FOCUS ON PAPARAZZI AUF vow to ffi 'ayed. gfat gVF A Monumental mourning Westminster Abbey, left, in which the Princess's funeral will take place, and right, a blanket of flowers laid by the thousands of mourners queuing BIG PLANS A happy, private future an impossible dream By SANDRA BARWICK in London Only seven weeks ago, Princess Diana hung on to the side of a small boat carrying a clutch of reporters and told them she had a big surprise in store. Whether she had a clear idea of what that would be moving abroad, becoming engaged, or both we shall now never know. Her friends say she switched between at least two plans of how she wished her life to proceed. To some, she talked about new engagements in her role as humanitarian ambassador.

To others, she suggested she might once more retire from public life. To a degree, the hopes she voiced fluctuated with the interests of those with whom she was talking. She discussed her desire to find another country to visit to highlight the campaign against landmines with the London Telegraph 's columnist and former editor W. F. Deedes, who accompanied her on a trip to Bosnia in August.

"She wished to show a continuity of interest," said Lord Deedes. Such a visit would take months in the planning, and suggests the princess was taking a long-term view of her campaign. He gained the impression that, in her real friendship with Dodi Al-Fayed, there was an element of mischievous pleasure at the likely reaction from some palace courtiers. The relationship was not quite so serious as some imagined, he believed. The princess told Rosa Monckton, wife of Dominic Lawson, editor of The Sunday Telegraph, and mother of her godchild, Domenica, that she wished to extend her charity work with children.

They talked of her plans to do so while on the princess's second holiday cruise of the summer. She gained the impression that Diana, as ever putting her sons at the centre of her life, was not likely to rush into a new marriage unless it was clearly in their interest But on her return from her third cruise, this time with Dodi, Diana rang a reporter to say she planned to leave public life. She told Richard Kay, a reporter for the Daily Mail she would carry out the engagements to which she was committed, including a trip to Asia planned for October but, when her diary was clear in November, she would give up public work. He believed she meant it, and had no doubt the declaration was mainly due to her love affair with Dodi Al-Fayed. He gained the impression the relationship was serious and marriage was likely.

Even in this conversation Diana's ambivalence shone through. Though she would like to retire from public life in search of happiness as a private person, she also wished to open hospices for the dying across the world. Also, Mr Mohamed Al-Fayed Dodi's father would finance a new charity to help those injured by landmines. The princess believed that somehow she could carry on with a major involvement in aid organisations in a purely private capacity. These many contradictory statements expressed her confusion.

Paparazzi in London were making her life intolerable, and making her feel powerless to take decisions. She had talked of moving abroad in the naive belief this might reduce the attention. Dodi Al-Fayed, with bodyguards, drivers, and houses at his command across the world, represented a rare chance of turning those dreams of escape into something close to reality. The testimony of the princess and of her friends is that she wanted to believe she could retain privacy and freedom. For her, it was an impossible dream.

The Telegraph, London fry 7 outside Kensington Palace. magazine editors the problems highlighted by the photographers' pursuit of Diana. The Scotsman newspaper, published in Edinburgh, came in for criticism for a report on foreign newspapers' use of pictures taken by the paparazzi at the death scene. The report reproduced the front page of the German newspaper Bild which carried a picture of the crashed car in which the bodies of the victims could not be clearly seen. The same front page reproduced on British television had the offending picture blacked out has lived in the village for 51 years, and was cook and housekeeper at Althorp, knew Diana as a child.

She said: "She was always very happy here. Looking back, it was probably the happiest time of her life. You get the sense that she is coming home. Her father is buried there. I am sure it is what she would have wanted.

I am glad the family are sticking to tradition." But one voiced the secret fears of many: "Every tourist visiting Britain will be heading to Brington. It will be like Elvis's grave." The Guardian pi rj i Al-Fayed, already a controversial figure in Britain. Yesterday the public relations machine for the Al-Fayeds was trying hard to turn the spotlight of public interest back on to the paparazzi who were initially blamed for hounding Diana and her companion to their deaths. The Al-Fayed family's Paris lawyer, Mr Bernard Dartevelle, insisted that the main cause of the deaths was the photographers' pursuit. "Whatever the fault of the driver, we have a chain of events, the origin of which was an offence committed by the pho He said the word had gone out that the Princess and Dodi were dining at the Ritz and 30 photographers had gathered at the main entrance.

"Their car was brought up, and another car which was to go with them to escort them," Mr Cole said. "Because the photographers were all around those two cars they were compelled to go to the back entrance of the hotel. They sent for another car and this third car was driven by Monsieur Paul. "As Monsieur Paul went away photographers pursued on motorcycles riding pillion. There was a large motorcycle which came alongside, got in front of the Mercedes and kept swerving to slow it down, so the others could come alongside and blitz the car with flashlights.

And that, of course, caused the circumstances with which we are dreadfully familiar." Britain's Press Complaints Commission announced yesterday that it would begin a review of the activities of the international paparazzi. The commission's chairman, Lord Wakeham, said he would discuss with newspaper and expected to line route 41 irffi ittH f- 1 1 I tographers," Mr Dartevelle said. "Mr Al-Fayed will use all legal means to bring, to justice those responsible for her death. If the photographers hadn't surrounded Lady Diana's vehicle and organised the chase, the driver would not have gone so fast" Mr Mohamed Al-Fayed caused a stir in Britain in July when photographs were published of Diana, and Princes William and Harry, holidaying with him aboard his yacht in the Mediterranean. Mr Al-Fayed is a controversial figure in Britain, not least because of his role in the parliamentary Afterwards the coffin will be taken by road to Althorp the home of the Spencers, Diana's family in Northamptonshire, about 100 kilometres north-west of London, for a private burial.

Buckingham Palace yesterday set up a memorial fund for people who wish to make donations in Diana's name. The fund was set up, the palace said, because the Princess' charities were inundated with offers of cash as a sign of respect. The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund will be By CHRISTOPHER HENNING Herald Correspondent in London Mr Mohamed Al-Fayed vowed yesterday to continue his civil case against the paparazzi who chased the car in which Princess Diana and his son, Dodi, were killed, despite the revelation that the driver of the car was three times over the legal limit for alcohol. The fact that the driver, Henri Paul, 41, was deputy chief of security at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, which is owned by the Al-Fayed family, now places even more pressure on Mr DIANA'S FUNERAL Million By HENRY MEYER of AFP More than a million mourners are expected to line London's streets on Saturday morning for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, when the world will bid farewell to the "People's Scotland Yard has activated a special operations centre, which will co-ordinate policing of what is expected to be the biggest public funeral in the capital since the burial in 1979 of Lord Mountbat-ten of Burma, whose assassination by the IRA sparked a wave of grief and outrage. Rail companies are planning to put on extra services to transport the thousands of people from across Britain who will converge on London for the quasi-state ceremony.

Hotels, already heavily booked at this time of year, are braced for a surge in reservations for Friday night. On the morning, the funeral procession will slowly make its way from Saint James's Palace, where Diana's body is resting in the Chapel Royal, to London's Westminster Abbey, where the funeral will be held from 1 1 am (8 pm Sydney time). Its route will take it through the main public arteries of the British capital, including The Mall, Horse Guards Parade and Whitehall, where hundreds of "cash-for-questions" scandal which helped to bring down John Major's Conservative Government Yesterday, Mr Al-Fayed issued a statement about the deaths of Diana and his son, saying: "God took their souls to live together in paradise. Now they have peace." He later said: "I will never be able to reconcile myself to the needless and cruel deaths of two people who were so vibrant, generous and full of life." Mr Michael Cole, spokesman for Harrods, another Al-Fayed company, also insisted that the photographers were to blame. coordinated and administered at Kensington Palace, where the princess lived.

A special memorial service for the Princess of Wales will be held at Sydney's St Andrew's Cathedral on Saturday. The Archbishop of Sydney, the Most Rev Harry Goodhew, will preach at the local 11 am service and worshippers will be able to place a flower in honour of Diana on the sanctuary steps inside the cathedral. St Andrew's Cathedral clergy are in contact with the Westminster Abbey authorities to ensure that the Sydney congregation will be able to sing the same hymns. Prince Charles' long-time lover Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles has cancelled a charity ball as a mark of respect for the Princess of Wales. Mrs Parker Bowles, blamed by Diana for the failure her marriage, 1fad planned the September 13 event with her sister as a fund-raiser for The National Osteoporosis Society.

The society issued a statement saying: "In view of the appalling news and as a mark of respect, the society has announced that the special fund-raising event has been cancelled." The event was widely seen as a first tentative step into public life for Mrs Parker Bowles. Arch If Br 1 1 GreateS, tsrehJ 1 Westminster 0 Fj Houses of ft Parliament UI ft. Y. Times News Service Farewell St Mary the Virgin Church at Great Brington, and the private Spencer Chapel. THE BURIAL Villagers fear Diana's grave will become tourist magnet Chapel Royal thousands of mourners will congregate.

The cortege may be accompanied by gun carriages, which is a feature of state funerals. It will be a state event but will not have all the pomp and ceremony of a full state funeral, the spokesman said. It would reflect the princess's The funeral at the Abbey will be attended by about 2,000 people, including representatives of the causes that Diana championed, as well as foreign dignitaries. London' 1 y. l) JT utho I- (tL Abbey Jp By CLARE LONGRIGG in London Diana's final resting place will be the Spencer Chapel in St Mary the Virgin Church at Great Brington, a village of just 200 in Northamptonshire, in the centre of England, where 20 generations of her family are buried.

The picturesque 13th-century church is 1.6 kilometres from the ancestral home, Althorp House, where she grew up. The Spencer mausoleum lies in the north-east corner of the church, and is divided from the chancel by blue and gold ornamental railings and stone arches. Its ornate interior can be seen from the church, but it is not open to visitors. On Monday, Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, visited the chapel after flying from South Africa. He declined to speak to the waiting media.

The Rev David MacPherson, who took over as vicar at St Mary's eight weeks ago, said he understood it would be a simple burial with no service. Among the villagers was a real sense that Diana would be "coming but some feared they would be overrun by tourists. Ms Betty Andrews, 76, who tihs Sjdknf 2W Olympic Gkmss, ft 2RCfc i.