Press Release: FREE MISS LANDMINE CAMBODIA 2009 - NATIONAL CAMBODIAN FINAL-IN-EXILE Nov 14

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

We, Cambodian in Norway would like to release the Press Release of contest of Miss Landmine Cambodia 2009 below.

Contact persons:
Morten Traavik, Program leader of Miss Landmine Cambodia:
Tel: (+47)-48039224
E-mail: <morten@miss-landmine.org>
Men Nath, Secretary, Cambodia Association in Norway
Tel: (+47)-90818257
E-mail: moninnath@yahoo.com

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PRESS RELEASE 06.11.09: FREE MISS LANDMINE CAMBODIA 2009 - NATIONAL FINAL-IN-EXILE HOSTED BY NORWAY'S CAMBODIAN COMMUNITY We are proud to invite you to the Free Miss Landmine Cambodia 2009 - probably the world's first beauty pageant final-in-exile. FREE Miss Landmine Cambodia 2009 is the national Cambodian final-in-exile of Miss Landmine Cambodia 2009, and is organised in collaboration with the Association of Cambodians in Norway and the Khmer Buddhist Council in Norway, and supported by The Cambodia Watchdog Council International and Sam Rainsy Party Chapter in Norway. Venue: South Norway Museum of Modern Arts, Skippergata 24B, Kristiansand Date: Saturday November 14, 5-8 p.m. Not many are aware of the fact that a country as far from Cambodia as Norway has a sizeable Khmer community numbering around 400, almost all concentrated in southern Norway's West Agder province. The community is organised culturally through the Association of Cambodians in Norway, and religiously through the Khmer Buddhist Council in Norway. On July 31st this year, the Prime Minister of Cambodia issued a decree banning the Miss Landmine Cambodia project and forbidding its organisers to continue the project in Cambodia. The Government's only stated motivation was that the pageant made a "mockery" of the candidates, 20 Cambodian landmine survivor participants. The ban made both national and international headlines and caused heated debates across the world, but so far the Cambodian government has upheld its ban. It is even refusing the Cambodian candidates to leave their hometowns to meet the project's organiser to take part in a farewell dinner, not to mention going abroad to participate in a final-in-exile. The 20 candidates not allowed to leave their hometowns by their government will be represented each by a large photograph, carried down the catwalk by girls from the Norwegian Cambodian community. The audience will be encouraged to vote for their preferred candidate to win the 1st prize - a state-of-the-art customized prothesis. The prize will be handed over to the winner at a date and venue to be announced later. Besides the voting and crowning of Miss Landmine Cambodia 2009, the Free Miss Landmine event will feature appeals by representatives of the Norwegian Cambodian community, cultural performances and serving of Cambodian food and drink. After the final event, the pictures of the Miss Landmine Cambodia 2009 candidates will be exhibited at the South Norway Museum of Modern Arts until December 1. In addition to the national Cambodian exile crowning on November 14, the ongoing "people's choice" international online vote will continue via the Miss Landmine project website www.miss-landmine.org/cambodia until December 3, UN's World Disability Day. The Free Miss Landmine Cambodia 2009 national final-in-exile is a cooperation between the artist Morten Traavik, the Association of Cambodians in Norway, the Khmer Buddhist Council, the South Norway Museum of Modern Art and West Agder Provincial Authority. For press contacts, reply to this email and/or see bottom of attached PDF in Khmer/Norwegian. www.miss-landmine.org/cambodia www.traavik.info www.skmu.no www.vaf.no