IMAGINE a country the size of England and Wales, with eight million landmines randomly scattered around.

How would you walk through the countryside to tend crops and grow food?

That's the dilemma faced by 11 million people in Cambodia every day, and that's why Diana, Princess of Wales, put such energy into alerting the world to the problem.

Now Preston MP Audrey Wise is taking up the fight and has joined Oxfam's Cut Conflict Campaign to stop the sale of landmines and small arms to countries like Cambodia where most of the victims are civilians.

"Diana's attitude on landmines was exactly the same as most people's attitudes," said Mrs Wise. "When she was told she didn't understand, she said: 'What's there to understand about people getting their legs blown off?'."

Mrs Wise joined representatives from Oxfam at Preston Flag Market on Friday when they staged a display of the types of lethal objects currently on sale to anyone with the money.

Also present was Oxfam worker Vishelakshi who works in Cambodia helping landmine victims.

"These people can't tend the rice fields, they can't collect fire wood to sell," she said. "Oxfam supports projects to provide artificial limbs, and then helps people set up businesses to support themselves."

Vishelakshi was in Preston as part of a three-week whistlestop tour round the country promoting the Cut Conflict Campaign.

"What we want is to stop our country investing more money on arms," she said.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.