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It cam as something of a surprise when Diana， Princess of Wales， made a trip to Angola in 1997， to support the Red Cross campaign for a total ban on anti－personnel landmines (地雷)．Within hours of arriving in Angola， television screens around the world were filled with images of her comforting victims (受害者) injured in accidents caused by landmines．“I knew the huge numbers，” she said．“But putting a face to those figures brought the reality home to me ； like when I met Sandra， a 13－year－old girl who had lost her leg， and people like her．” The Princess concluded with a simple message：“We must stop landmines”．And she used every opportunity during her visit to repeat this message．
But， back in London， her views wee not shared by some members of the British government， which refused to support a ban on these weapons．Angry politicians started an attack on the Princess in the press ，They described her as “very ill－informed”．The Princess responded by brushing aside the eroticisms：“This is a prevention we do not need．All I’m trying to do is to help．” Opposition parties， the media and the public immediately voiced their support for the Princess．To make matters worse for the government， it soon appeared that the Princess trip bad been approved by the Foreign Office， and that she was in fact very well－informed about both the situation in Angola and the British government’s policy regarding laundries．the result was a sever blow on the government．
To try and limit the damage， the Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkidnd， said that the Princess’ views on landmines were not very different from the government’s policy， and that it was “working towards” a worldwide ban．The defence secretary， Michael Portillo declared the matter was “a misunderstanding”．For the Princess， the trip to this war－torn country was an excellent opportunity to use her popularity to show the world hw much destruction and suffering landmines can cause．She said that the experience had also given her the chance to get closer to people and their problems．
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