![[Image]](fmain.jpg) (L-R) Earl Spencer, Prince William, Prince Harry and Prince Charles look at the coffin of Diana, Princes of Wales, after it was put into a hearse, yesterday. Millions of mourners lined the streets of central London to watch the funeral procession - Reuters. |
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By Asantha Sirimanne, in London
Amidst tears of millions of mourners, Princess Diana went on her last journey yesterday, spelling the end to an unprecedented public outpouring of grief in this country.
Millions of Britons poured into the city centre to pay 'homage' to makeshift 'shrines' for Diana, ranging from St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and indeed the Harrods department store. The crowds are estimated to have been the biggest seen in London since the VE day, when victory in Europe was declared during the tail end of World War Two.
But still more extraordinary was the dedication of the 30,000 old mourners who camped overnight, some for more than two days, along the route of the funeral procession in central London to catch a glimpse of her coffin.
As night fell on Friday and the music from the public address system went silent, some people around Westminster Abbey crawled into tents, sleeping bags and blankets to get the much needed sleep.
However, still more people began arriving via the tube until midnight and via night buses after that.
As midnight neared the usually deserted tube stations, brimmed to the full with people. Incoming trains bore many mourners bearing floral tributes. Escalators were dotted with people carrying bright plumes of colourful blooms, giving a party air to the underground corridors.
Once in the open, the flowers joined thousand of others that line the roadside, lawns, pavements, walls or was strung along fences.
With the onrush of new mourners, voices were sometimes raised when late-comers tried to gain vantage points staked out by others. But usually a cry of 'Hello... This is a funeral you know', was enough to quell any disturbance. The watchful police were not often needed.
One mourner wanted another in the front row to stand up so that she could check whether her view was clear when the other stood up.
The other's resistance disappeared when she said. 'Come on luv, do a Diana and stand up.'
"We always loved Diana," one mourner said. "But until last week I never knew most of the things that she had done."
This statement perhaps goes some way to show the sentimental frenzy whipped up by repeated bombardment of the public by TV networks and every newspapers for a whole week.
As the night wore on, mourners keeping the candle lit vigil had to battle with the chill winds of the early autumn.
Some sang hymns. Others walked around talking, reflecting and searching for good vantage points.Some cried when the gun carriage with Diana's body went past with the two young sons in tow, still more cried when her brother Earl Spencer's voice reached them over the public address system.
Florists had to import vast stocks of new flowers and even newspaper publishers had to place emergency orders with Swedish newsprint makers to keep up with demand.
By morning there were more people, more tributes, floral and otherwise. Not all were flowers or candles. There were messages decorated with a playing card - the queen of hearts, helium balloons, a scrapbook of pre-school children's paintings with captions like 'I love Diana, she was lovely, or 'Diana died in a car crash with her boyfriend.'
There was even a scale model of a London sightseeing bus dedicated to her memory. But it was the messages that brought to life the true feelings of many mourners. Like this one written across a cloth flag;
I came to see you as a bride: and also with your sons
I came today to say my farewell: I felt I've a lost a friend
Oh God my heart is bleeding: I feel so numb and hurt
Farewell my lovely princess
Farewell my queen of hearts
With all my love
Farewell, farewell, farewell.
Striking a chord with millions of Britons, Earl Spencer said Diana had required no royal title to spread her particular brand of magic and attacked journalists who had hounded his sister, according to AFP.
Close to tears, Spencer said Diana could not "ever understand why her genuine good intentions were sneered at by the media" but he believed the reason was that "genuine goodness is threatening to those at the opposite end of the moral spectrum."
He described his sister as "the most hunted person of the modern age" and vowed he would not let her children, Prince William, 15, and Prince Harry, 12, suffer the same fate.
As the last year had demonstrated, he said, Diana did not need the trappings of royalty to win the hearts of the world. "She needed no royal title to generate her particular brand of magic."
Diana was stripped of the title "Royal Highness" when she and Prince Charles were divorced last year.
Spencer described Diana as "standard bearer of the rights of the downtrodden", faltered and almost broke down at the end of his speech.
As he finished, both the congregation in the abbey and the massive crowds in Hyde Park watching the relayed ceremony on giant TV screens burst into prolonged applause.
Yesterday's funeral was, as promised, a "unique" event "for a unique person" with a mix of pageantry but little pomp, and a congregation made up mostly of Diana's friends from show business, fashion and the 110 charities to which she devoted much of her life.
Elton John's rendering of his hit song Candle in the Wind adapted to pay tribute to Diana brought Harry to tears, and he buried his head in his hands.
The royal family, which had been accused this week of being out of touch with the national outpouring of grief at Diana's death, laid aside protocol for the momentous farewell.
William and Harry joined their father Prince Charles, Prince Philip and Earl Spencer and walked the last mile of the three-mile (4.8-kilometre) processional route to the abbey.
At one stage Charles comfortingly put his hand on the young Harry's shoulders, while William, the second in line to the throne after his father, walked slowly, head bowed and face drawn.
When the queen left Buckingham Palace for the abbey, the royal standard flag was taken down and the Union Jack hoisted to half mast over the palace for the first time ever, amid applause from the crowds massed outside.
Prime Minister Tony Blair, who dubbed Diana "the people's princess," took to the pulpit to read the Hymn to Love from Corinthians.
The congregation also sang two verses of Diana's favourite hymn "I vow to thee my country," before her sisters read poems in homage and soprano Lynne Dawson sang an extract from Verdi's requiem.
More than a million mourners, some wailing, had watched the horse-drawn carriage carry her coffin through London's streets to the abbey for nearly two hours.
The coffin was draped in the royal standard and adorned with wreaths of white lillies, roses and tulips, the princess's favourite flowers, which shone in the bright morning sunshine. One of the wreaths had a card saying simply "mummy."
Three pairs of horses ridden by members of the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, in their gold-embroidered uniforms, drew the gun-carriage which was flanked by 12 Welsh guardsmen in bearskin hats and scarlet tunics. As the coffin entered the abbey, at the end of the procession, one voice in the crowd cried out: "I can't believe it. She's gone."
Following the cortege were more than 500 representatives of the charities that Diana was involved in, including a number of people in wheelchairs.
Britain has been paralysed by sorrow for six days since Diana and her boyfriend Dodi al-Fayed, 42, died after a car crash in Paris while their driver Henri Paul was apparently trying to escape paparazzi photographers.
Britain was virtually shut down for the procession, service and final 75-mile (120 kilometer) journey of Diana's body to her ancestral home in Althorp, central England, where she was to be buried on an island in a lake on the family estate.
At the abbey, among the 1,900 congregation were movie stars Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise, pop singer Sting and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
US First Lady Hillary Clinton, Queen Noor of Jordan, opera singer Luciano Pavarrotti and Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan also attended.
The abbey was crammed with one of the most diverse congregations ever seen inside the church, reflecting the widespread popularity of the princess and the varied groups that she had befriended during her life.
The service, which lasted around one hour, ended with a minute's silence that was observed across the country.
Diana's coffin then began the journey to Althorp, where her family have requested total privacy.
As the hearse wound its way through the streets hundreds of thousands of people lined the route, hurling flowers and applauding as it passed by.
At one stage the driver had to use windscreen wipers to be able to see.
The credibility of Sri Lanka's premier pharmaceuticals corporation has suffered another major blow with the Attorney General reprimanding it for violating the law in the import of drugs worth some 50 million rupees.
The State Pharmaceuticals Corporation, still recovering from the recent scandal over the import of low-standard triple vaccine for children, has run into a fresh crisis with 19 other items being held at the Colombo Port because they did not meet proper registration requirements.
The SPC had written to the Director of Health Services asking for an exemption from the legal requirements, so that it could clear the multi-million rupee stock from the port. The director sought advice from the Attorney-General who told him he had no right to grant him any exemptions to the SPC. So the stock lies in the port, with the SPC expressing concern over the rising demurrage charges, but other medical sources blaming the corporation for creating this dilemma and deadlock through lapses or irresponsibility.
While the Attorney-General is insisting the SPC had violated the law by importing drugs without a specific license and proper registration, the Health Services Director has said such steps were necessary when there are no importers of a particular drug or when prices are too high. The health director has also appealed to the Customs chief to grant more time to sort out the dispute.
Earlier, the SPC was accused of importing large stocks of children's triple vaccine which were not upto WHO standards. The Government Medical Officers's Association and others accused the SPC of playing with the lives of children for personal profits. They demanded the resignation of the SPC chairman Colvin Gooneratne, but the Health Ministry has asked him to continue after preliminary investigations produced no substantial evidence of malpractices.
A major controversy has erupted after Customs officers raided the Stassen Exports on allegations of under invoicing but the company's boss and business magnate Harry Jayewardena is denying any wrongdoing.
Customs officers told The Sunday Times they had placed the whole matter before President Chandrika Kumaratunga for full probe. Mr. Jayewardena, besides heading several private companies is also chairman of the national carrier AirLanka
A few Customs officers, with authority to search the company and seize documents related to the alleged deals, had reportedly been turned away on the first occasion, Customs said. Later around 15 officers moved in as a team.
On both occasions there was an exchange of words between Customs and company officials. According to customs sources, the raid was carried out following information that one of the latest imports had been undervalued.
Customs officers who did not want to be named said they were threatened by the company staff when they went for the raid.
But Stassen chief Jayewardena told The Sunday Times the custom officers had come in search of documents related to a recent shipment of what he called 'uncustomed' goods. He said the containers were passed initially but the second team of officers wanted to carry out another check.
He denied reports that his house was searched or that there was a shooting incident.
Sri Lanka yesterday joined the world in paying a beautiful tribute to Princess Diana, describing her as a woman who touched the hearts of all through the warmth of love in a cold world.
Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, signing the book of condolence at the British High Commissioner's residence this week said. "On behalf of Her Excellency the President, the Government and people of Sri Lanka I wish to convey to the Royal Family, the Government and the British people the deep feeling of loss that we in Sri Lanka feel on the untimely death of Princess Diana in the prime of life.
She touched the hearts of our people as she did the hearts of all peoples, everywhere. Our people had great respect and admiration for the role she did for the poor, the rich, the handicapped, the disadvantaged and the underprivileged.
In a hard world, a cold world, she was a loving, caring person - and the people of all lands, across borders, across continents, loved her too."
With Princess Diana's funeral yesterday turning into one of the biggest TV spectaculars even in Sri Lanka, British High Commission here has arranged a public remembrance and thanksgiving service for her on Tuesday at Colombo's premier Anglican Cathedral of Christ the Living Saviour.
The mission said it had arranged the service in view of a massive public response here to the Diana tragedy with thousands signing condolence books.
Significantly, the High Commission has also noted that photographers would not be allowed to take pictures in the cathedral during the service. This came amidst persistent charges that freelance photographers who had chased Princess Diana were partly responsible for the tragedy.
CALCUTTA, Saturday (Reuter) - A grieving India broke with tradition yesterday and decided to accord Mother Teresa, the tiny saint of Calcutta's slums, a state funeral as thousands of faithful gathered in her adopted city to pay respects.
Pope John Paul said Mother Teresa had marked the history of the 20th century as an extraordinary person who had made all those "defeated by life, feel the tenderness of God".
Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral's cabinet declared a day of national mourning on yesterday and decided to hold a state funeral on September 13 when the revered nun was to be buried at her religious order in Calcutta, a spokesman said.
"As a matter of respect and homage, the government decided to break out of protocol and observe state mourning today all over the country and to accord her state funeral status," the spokesman told Reuters.
The funeral was moved back by three days to allow dignitaries more time to pay their respects.
A spokeswoman said Mother Teresa's last words before falling back on her bed to die were: "I can't breathe anymore."
From movie stars to street sweepers, people around the world paid tribute to her devotion to the destitute and ill.
In his first public appearance since the nun's death on Friday of heart failure, the Pope told a Roman Catholic charity which cares for the sick that Mother Teresa should continue to inspire their work.
"An extraordinary example of this silent mission of charity, which is born from the contemplation of Christ, is Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who returned to the Home of the Father just yesterday," he said in a speech to the Italian Centre of Volunteers of the Suffering.
"She helped the poorest of the poor, gave them courage to live and the feeling of their worth," German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said.
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