Miss Landmine

Dos Sopheap, Miss Landmine Cambodia (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

October 13, 2010
By Greg Hoekstra - North Shore Outlook

In the opening scene of Stan Feingold’s new documentary, Miss Landmine, a woman stands in the seaside paradise of Kep, Cambodia, with a sparkling tiara resting on her crown.

As waves gently lap against the sandy shoreline, the woman smiles awkwardly and poses for a series of glamour shots taken by a professional photographer.

Click. Click. Click.

Dangling from the woman’s right hand is a large silver disco ball that glimmers when it catches a ray of sunlight. But it’s the left sleeve of the woman’s white dress shirt that draws the most attention — hanging flat and empty, with no arm to fill it.

It’s then that the viewer realizes the woman in the spotlight is one of tens of thousands of amputees in Cambodia — a victim of the estimated 4 million landmines that litter the countryside.

So when Feingold — an award-winning North Vancouver filmmaker — first heard about the Miss Landmine beauty pageant, he knew immediately that it would make a great documentary.

“It’s a search for beauty in a dire social environment,” says Feingold. “In many ways that’s what my films tend to gravitate toward ... it’s about those that have been labelled rejects in their society, it’s about that flower that grows through the rubble.”

The film, which premiers this weekend at the San Francisco Documentary Film Festival, chronicles artist Morten Traavik’s attempts to stage a controversial beauty pageant for landmine survivors in Cambodia.

Over the course of a year, Feingold and his cinematographer, Brian Johnson, followed Traavik’s travels through the country as he recruited participants from each of the country’s 20 provinces.

Eventually, the pageant is outlawed by the Cambodian government for “causing shame to the Cambodian people,” but the cameras keep rolling, and the pageant continues both online and overseas.

The film culminates with a risky journey back over the Cambodian border to crown the winner with her grand prize — a $20,000 prosthetic leg made from titanium.

As a filmmaker, Feingold is no stranger to controversial subjects. In 2004 he directed the Gemini award-winning film Prisoners of Age, a documentary that examined the self-described “garbage of society” — geriatric convicts — and the often grim circumstances they face as their lives come to an end in prison.

A few years earlier, in 2001, he won an Emmy for his film Heroines, which used music, poetry and photography to illustrate the lives of women trying to survive in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Even still, Feingold admits he was a little taken aback when Miss Landmine generated a slew of hateful, fiery messages online — mostly on feminist blogs and websites.

Some detractors argued that the pageant was sexist in nature, while others accused Traavik and the film crew of being exploitative white colonialists.

Some even went so far as to suggest the pageant sexualized the prosthetic limbs, making Feingold’s film a piece of amputee porn.

“I’ve heard it all, but I still truly believe it’s a noble effort,” says Feingold. “It meant so much to these people to have someone come and say ‘you’re beautiful.’ It made a huge difference in their lives.”

Feingold says he also hopes people won’t avoid seeing the film based on any presumptions.

“I think sometimes people hear about the pageant and their initial reaction is ‘that must be disgusting,’” he says. “I would encourage people to keep an open mind and watch it. It’s actually a movie full of contrast, irony, and beauty.”

This Saturday, Oct. 16, Feingold will fly to San Francisco to attend the film’s world premier. The following week he’ll fly to Norway to screen the documentary at the prestigious Bergen International Film Festival.

Canadian viewers will get their first chance to see the film when it premiers on Canadian television on November 22 at 6 p.m. on the CBC’s documentary channel.

For more on the Miss Landmine Pageant, visit www.miss-landmine.org.

Miss Landmine to Sweden

Dos Sopheap (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

09.03.2010
ScandAsia.com

When Dos Sopheap was four years she stepped on a landmine in his home country of Cambodia and lost his leg. Now she has won the first prize in the beauty contest Miss Landmine - where the award ceremony was held in secret because the Cambodian government banned it, reports Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

Now, the photos from the competition is a high-profile exhibition in Sweden.

When the Cambodian government banned the beauty contest the Norwegian artist Morten Traavik, the initiator of the contest for the second consecutive year, went around in Cambodia and met with the finalists in the secrecy.

He gave $ 1000 in prize to the beauty of Dos Sopheap, together with a prototype of a prosthesis to replace her lost leg. The prosthesis, is made of titanium and much smoother than the objects she has today.

“I am extremely pleased and proud to receive this award, especially the new prosthetic leg,” said Dos Sopheap to the Phnom Penh Post. Dos Sopheap will use the prize money to complete her studies. Her future dream is to work as an economist for a nonprofit organization.

Photo exhibition Miss Landmine

On March 9 the Army Museum in Stockholm opens the gates to the famous photo exhibition Miss Landmine. It shows colour photographs in large format and aims to shift the focus from women in a offer position to a rather strong survivor.

In this way, Norwegian Morten Traavik wants to reduce the feelings of inferiority and guilt diminished and instead create pride and strength.

Facts

• Every year, 20000 people are injured or killed from landmines.
• The UN has so far recognized 2 million people as victims of landmines, of which 300000 are in need of extensive care.
• Cambodia is the country with most mines in the world.

First Miss Landmine Cambodia Crowned

Miss Battambang
Dos Sopheap
Age: 18
Hometown : Damnak Lourng Village, Svay Por District
Mine accident : 1996
Marital status: Single
Kids: None
Occupation: Student
Future ambition: Accountant for an NGO
Favorite color: Red

Clothes: American Appareil, $ 32
Shoe and accessories: Myff Design, $ 17
Location: The Quay Hotel, Phnom Penh
www.thequayhotel.com

Mine : PMA-2 anti-personnel, $ 10
Release: Pressure (8 kg or more)
Explosive: 100 g TNT
Producer: Former Yugoslavia

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
19 November 2009

Cambodians in Norway have selected the winner of the Miss Landmine for Cambodia after it was not allowed inside the country.

Eighteen-year-old Dos Sopheap of Battambang was crowned in absentia in a ceremony attended by more than 200 participants on Saturday last week at the South Norway Museum of Modern Arts in Kristiansan.

None of the 20 candidates were able to attend the event. The selection was based on photographs taken earlier in Cambodia.

“I am happy to know that I have been selected. Being a disabled person, I only got discriminated against, now I am so thrilled,” Dos Sopheap told VOA Khmer by phone on Monday.

Dos Sopheap, now a senior at a high school in Battambang province, lost her left leg to a landmine while escaping from a gun fighting in 1996.

The first runner up goes to Miss Takeo, 30-year-old Thou Chorn, and second runner-up Miss Kompong Cham, So Yeu, 35.

Cambodia’s government has banned the contest, organized by Norwegian landmine survivor advocates, saying it is a “mockery” to Cambodia’s disabled.

“Even though the government does not recognize our project it is time that the international demining organizations working in Cambodia step up and take a stance for the freedom of expression in Cambodia and recognize Sopheap as an ambassador for landmine survivors in Cambodia and find a way to use her talent,” said Morten Traavik, program leader of Miss Landmine Cambodia.

In her first message upon learning of the crowning, Dos Sopheap calls for more efforts to clear landmines from Cambodia.

“I would like to appeal to CMAC [Cambodian Mines Action Centre] to clear all landmines so that no more Cambodian people will fall victims. I would also like CMAC to warn villagers not to go into a place where there is a landmine sign," she said.

There are some 43,926 landmine survivors in Cambodia. The Cambodian Mines Action Centre says almost 200 people suffered from landmines in the first nine months of 2009, a slight decline compared to the same period last year.

Pageant proceeds in Norway

A photo of the winner of Miss Landmine Cambodia, Miss Battambang Dos Sopheap, is presented in Oslo on Saturday. The pageant was held in exile, as it previously was forbidden in Cambodia. (Photo by: GORM K GAARE/EUP-IMAGES)

Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post

I'm getting used to having one leg and my feeling of discrimination is reduced.

A CONTROVERSIAL beauty pageant for Cambodian land mine victims found its winners on Saturday at a “final-in-exile” ceremony in Kristiansand, Norway, hosted by Norway’s Association of Cambodians and its Khmer Buddhist Council.

Miss Battambang, 18-year-old Dos Sopheap, was crowned Miss Landmine Cambodia 2009 in absentia, followed by first runner-up Miss Takeo, 30-year-old Thou Chorn, and second runner-up Miss Kompong Cham, So Yeu, 35.

The contest, organised by Norwegian land-mine survivor advocates, was banned from taking place in Cambodia by a July 31 government decree, which also forbade the 20 contestants to leave their hometowns to participate in the pageant elsewhere. The decree said that the pageants “made a mockery” of Cambodia’s disabled. The contestants were represented at the ceremony by photographs carried down the catwalk by Cambodian-Norwegian women.

Dos Sopheap, a high school senior, said Monday that she was thrilled to find out she would receive the pageant’s grand prize: a custom-made prosthesis. “I never thought I could win the award,” Dos Sopheap said. “I was very excited when I received the information. I was glad to participate in the contest because I want people to know that disabled women are not discouraged.”

Dos Sopheap said she initially faced discrimination for her injury, but that her struggle to live and study earned her the admiration of neighbours and classmates. “I’m now getting used to having one leg, and my feeling of discrimination is reduced,” she said.

Her mother, 38-year-old Kong Navy, said Dos Sopheap, the second of five children, lost her leg in 1996 when she was 6 years old. She was visiting her father, a soldier, who took her on a fishing trip with his friends. When one of the men stepped on a land mine, the explosion injured six people, including Dos Sopheap and her father, who lost his left hand.

“I felt very shocked when they were injured,” Kong Navy said. “Sopheap was mistreated for having one leg. She cried and cried, but I consoled her, saying not to be angry with villagers and to tell herself, ‘They will stop discriminating against you one day.’ I felt pity for my daughter, but now I am proud of her.” Her daughter hopes one day to become an accountant or open a wedding dress shop, she said.

Morten Traavik, programme leader of Miss Landmine Cambodia, said by email on Monday that the winner will receive a Norwegian-built prosthetic leg worth approximately $20,000 and $500 in cash to support her education. The runners-up will receive $300 each as seed money for their own businesses.

“We would naturally have liked to have given them more,” Traavik wrote, “but the money will all come from the Miss Landmine project’s own limited funds, as the [Cambodian] government’s ban on the project naturally prevents any sponsors from coming on, as was the original plan.”

Traavik was hesitant to discuss how prizes would be disbursed without an “explicit guarantee from the government that ... our candidates will not be subject to any negative consequences for accepting these prizes.”

Leng Sochea, deputy permanent secretary general at the Cambodian Mine Action Authority, rebutted his concerns. “The winners will not face any problems receiving their awards. The government is not as cruel as they think,” he said.

Miss Cambodia Landmine 2009 to boost self esteem

Dos Sopheap, Miss Landmine 2009 contestant (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
14 November 2009

Cambodian community in Norway will organize a beauty contest for landmine victims on Saturday after failing to organize it in Cambodia.

The event, organized in collaboration with the Association of Cambodians in Norway and the Khmer Buddhist Council in Norway, will also feature Khmer traditional dance and food display.

There are 20 landmine victims taking part in the contest, but since no contestant is able to travel to Norway, organizers will ask volunteers there to dress up as beauty queens and carry photos of the contestants. A winner will then be selected by potentially more than 300 participants.

“We want to show [people of the world] that our society doesn’t need a war and landmines to kill more people. We want to live in peace,” said Men Nath, one of the main organizers. “Another positive point that our program wishes to show is that every individual has equal value and once a person is disabled, how would he/she live if we don’t value them”.

Contestants, aged between 18 and 48, are from many of Cambodia’s provinces like Siem Reap, Kampong Speu, Battambang, Kampong Thom, Kampot, Svay Rieng, and Sihanoukville.

“The reason why I take part in the contest is to seek an equal right and call for an end to discrimination [against disabled people],” Song Kosal, 25-year-old contestant from Battambang province, told VOA Khmer by phone.

“Though we are disabled women, we have our beauty to compete and to show people around the world. We have the rights to tell our own story to all people; and the beauty is not the physical appearance, but our pure heart,” she said.

Song Kosal, who lost her right leg to a landmine 20 years ago, hopes that country that has not yet taken action to ban landmine will change their mind after they see the disabled women.

The contest was initially planned for August in Cambodia, but was not allowed on the grounds that it will be a “mockery” at the victims.

But, the organizers disagree.

“This project is very beneficial for the self esteem of the people taking part since they are being looked upon as beautiful and they are allowed or they should be allowed to present themselves as the beauty queens that they all are each in their own way,” said Morten Traavik, program leader of Miss Landmine Cambodia. “As for Cambodia and Cambodian government as a whole it would be given a signal that the government really cares about its own disabled citizens and let them present themselves as they themselves see fit”.

Miss Landmine Pageant Moved to Norway

11/13/2009
ShortNews.com

Earlier this year the Ministry of Social Affairs in Cambodia, banned a Miss Landmine pageant from taking place, saying it was damaging to the dignity and rights of the disabled.

The 20 contestants (all Cambodian landmine victims) were disappointed when the pageant was banned. Now the pageant will continue but in Norway, not Cambodia.

Photos of the 20 contestants will be carried down the catwalk at the South Norway Museum of Arts this Saturday. The actual contestants themselves will remain in Cambodia.

Source: www.phnompenhpost.com

A beauty pageant with a difference [... the contest was banned by Hun Xen's order]

After losing a leg to a landmine, Song Kosal became involved in the campaign to ban the weapons. (Photo: Jared Ferrie / The National)

August 02. 2009
Jared Ferrie, Foreign Correspondent
The National (UAE)

PHNOM PENH - Song Kosal’s life has so far taken her from the rice paddies of rural Cambodia, where she lost a leg to a landmine at the age of five, to the White House to present a petition urging the US to sign a treaty banning landmines.

On Friday she will embark on yet another journey when she takes part in the Miss Landmine competition, a beauty pageant for victims of landmines. Ms Kosal will be vying for the title along with 20 other women who have lost limbs to landmines left over from Cambodia’s civil war. The winner will be crowned in a ceremony in December and will receive a custom-made prosthetic limb.

Although she already has a prosthetic leg, it does not fit properly and it is painful to use, so she walks with a crutch instead. While a prosthetic leg designed especially for her would make walking much easier, the prize is not her reason for participating in the contest.

“I want to try to get people to pay attention to women with disabilities and to not discriminate. People with disabilities can do anything,” she said. “And if we do this project we can raise the issue of the ban [on landmines].”

Miss Landmine is the brainchild of Morten Traavik, a Norwegian actor and theatre director. He launched the first pageant last year in Angola, which is one of the three most heavily mined countries in the world, along with Cambodia and Afghanistan.

Mr Traavik was staying at the family home of his then girlfriend in Angola’s capital, Luanda, in 2003, just one year after the end of the country’s civil war.

“There was still a very palpable sense of a state of emergency,” he said. The streets were strewn with garbage, buildings were pockmarked with bullet holes, and of course there were thousands of amputees, victims of landmines that peppered the countryside. During his visit, Mr Traavik got to know some of the neighbourhood children and they asked him to be a judge at a contest they were organising called Miss “Beco”, meaning Miss Backstreet.

“It was such a wonderful event,” Mr Traavik recalled. “A narrow back alley was the catwalk. The women were of all shapes, sizes, nuances of brown and black. It was a very inclusive event. It made me see how uncomplicated it can be, a playful celebration of life and beauty.”

The experience stuck with him and before long Mr Traavik came up with the idea of organising a similar event to raise awareness about landmines, which are currently banned by 156 countries but continue to kill and maim decades after the end of armed conflicts. His idea was met with scepticism if not outright disgust by many of the international organisations he approached for funding.

“Some people have a purely gut reaction that all beauty pageants are bad no matter if they have a higher purpose,” said Mr Traavik, who said many people he talked to could not get past the concept of a pageant as “sleazy old men voting for young dancing babes in bathing suits”.

But the Angolan government and local community groups gave their support and after applying to the Norwegian Arts Council a few times he finally received a grant.

The Cambodian government, however, yesterday urged the cancellation of the event, Agence France-Presse reported. In a letter to organisers, the ministry of social affairs said: “The ministry asks the people who organise this contest to stop this action … for protecting … the honour and dignity of people with disabilities.”

While Miss Landmine is a far cry from the average pageant, it does follow the traditional aesthetic of beauty contests. The competition will kick off with the launch of a photo exhibit and a glossy magazine featuring contestants photographed against backdrops of beaches and Cambodia’s famed ancient temples. People throughout the world can cast votes online for their favourite candidate at www.miss-landmine.org/cambodia. Those votes will be taken into account by judges who will decide the winner at the December event, which will feature contestants on a catwalk in gowns and a brief interview conducted by an MC.

According to the Miss Landmine magazine, Ms Kosal lost her leg to a Gyata 64 anti-personnel mine, which was manufactured in Hungary and sold for about US$15 (Dh55).

Ms Kosal said she could not remember the incident, but her mother, who was working in a rice paddy at the time, told her that she was collecting firewood when she stepped on the mine. Her story is common in Cambodia, which is littered with mines left behind after a two-decade long war between government troops backed by Vietnam and Khmer Rouge rebels.

“I am very angry at these people who put landmines there,” said Ms Kosal. “But I am happy that I have the chance to join the campaign to challenge countries like the US that have not signed the treaty.”

The 1997 Mine Ban Treaty has yet to be signed by 37 countries, including the UAE. Ms Kosal is a youth ambassador for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a global advocacy network. In 2001, she travelled to Washington, DC, to present a petition containing 263,000 signatures to Colin Powell, who was serving as the secretary of state in the administration of George W Bush.

“I liked him, the way he spoke, the way he acted,” she said, but added that Mr Powell said the US would sign the treaty, which it has not done. “I was upset that he promised me, then he forgot what he said to me.”

Mr Traavik noted that the US, along with China and Russia, are major producers of weapons including landmines, and none of them have signed the treaty, also known as the Ottawa Accord. According to Landmine Monitor, a civil society group that tracks progress made in eliminating landmines, those three countries have by far the biggest stockpiles, with about 145 million antipersonnel mines between them.

“It’s not a coincidence that these countries unwilling to sign the Ottawa Accord are also the biggest weapons producers,” he said. “Of course there is a powerful arms industry and a powerful arms lobby that does not want to lose money.”

That is why it is important to keep pressuring such countries by bringing attention to the issue in any way possible, he said, even if it means challenging commonly held assumptions about the evils of beauty pageants.

Cambodia rejects landmine beauty contest

August 2, 2009
AFP

The Cambodian government has urged the cancellation of a beauty pageant in which landmine victims will compete to win a prosthetic leg, organisers say.

In the Miss Landmine Cambodia contest, 20 competitors from around the country are due to appear in a photo exhibition opening on Friday in Phnom Penh, followed by an internet voting campaign to select the best candidate.

But in a letter to organisers, the Ministry of Social Affairs has called on them to cancel the contest - although the Cambodian Mine Action Authority said in 2007 it fully supported the event.

"The ministry asks the people who organise this contest to stop this action ... for protecting ... the honour and dignity of people with disabilities," the letter said in English.

But Norwegian pageant director Morten Traavik said the contest, which offers as the top prize a custom-made prosthetic leg, would increase awareness about the victims of landmines.

"I have asked to meet the Cambodian officials to clear up our misunderstanding, and I hope once they know about our project details, they will welcome this," he said.

He explained that the pageant aimed "to raise awareness of what landmines have done to the people", adding that it would be a "big shame" if people could not see the exhibition.

The first Miss Landmine contest was held in Angola last year, drawing protests from rights activists who viewed it as exploitative and racist.

Cambodia remains one of the world's most heavily mined countries, along with Afghanistan and Angola.

Hundreds of people are killed or maimed every year by the millions of landmines and other unexploded ordnance still littering the countryside after decades of conflict.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen cancelled a Miss Cambodia beauty pageant in 2006, saying he would not allow such a contest until poverty in Cambodia was reduced by more than half.

Norwegian organizes Cambodian Miss Landmine contest

2009-07-29
ScandAsia.com

The second annual Miss Landmine beauty pageant, a controversial event that debuted in Angola last year, will open in Cambodia next month, with organisers saying they hope the event will raise awareness about the continuing risk of land mines around the globe.

"I believe it is a good way of looking at things in a new and different way ... [to see] these women as strong, glamorous and beautiful," said Norwegian artist Morten Traavik, who organised the first Miss Landmine pageant. "It will make a contribution to how the rest of society will look at them ... Society will feel that these women can do anything."

The contest, which has support from the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, the Ministry of Women's Affairs, the Cambodian Mine Action Centre and the Cambodian Disabled People's Organisation, has been designed to highlight the difficulties faced by female land mine victims. A total of 21 contestants representing all provinces except Ratanakkiri, Koh Kong and Kratie are set to participate in the contest. The contestants will launch a photo exhibition and a fashion magazine that uses land mine survivors as models at Meta House on August 7, and the public will be able to vote for the winner on the project's Web site (www.miss-landmine.org) beginning on August 1.

Miss Landmine: exploitation or bold publicity for the victims?

Norwegian theatre director defends what aid agencies dismissed as a freak show

Tuesday April 22 2008
Ian MacKinnon
South-east Asia correspondent
The Guardian (UK)

In the realm of beauty pageants it is not the stuff of little girls' dreams. Yet after the success of the inaugural Miss Landmine competition in Angola, the organisers plan to take the contest to Cambodia next year.

Both countries rank alongside Afghanistan as among the world's most heavily mined places, with a correspondingly high number of victims who suffered the terrible effects of the weapons left festering after years of conflict.

It was the plight of the victims that prompted a Norwegian theatre and film director, Morten Traavik, to come up with the challenging - some would say tasteless - contest to spotlight the ongoing tragedy. "My feminist mother was very unimpressed by the idea of a beauty pageant," said Traavik, 36. "Here in Norway beauty pageants are regarded as the work of the devil. They're seen as very, very politically incorrect."

But Traavik shrugs off any criticism. He is buoyed by the attention-grabbing headlines won by the first Miss Landmine competition staged in Angola earlier this month. "I'm a great believer in counterpoint - a good old theatre trick," he said. "Here the counterpoint is to put 'landmine' and 'miss' together. It's the counterpoint of the serious and tragic reality of landmines and the joyful celebration of life inherent in a beauty pageant."

The joint winners of the Angolan contest, Augusta Urica, 31, and Maria Restino Manuel, 26, were the embodiment of Traavik's ideal at the finale in the capital, Luanda, swathed in designer gowns, sashes and silver tiaras that crowned them Miss Landmine 2008.

With 10 women representing their provinces, she hobbled up the platform on crutches to collect her prize - a golden, state-of-the-art prosthetic limb to replace the leg blown off 10 years ago.

Traavik came up with the notion four years ago when he visited Luanda with a girlfriend. He said he was captivated by the Angolan passion for beauty pageants and their carnival atmosphere after some local children asked him to judge a "Miss Backstreet" contest. But he was also struck by the suffering caused by landmines that had left more than 80,000 people maimed after a 20-year civil war, and decided that with his theatre background he was ideally-placed to marry the two things.

After some persuasion, the EU put up some money, along with Norway's arts council, the Angolan government's de-mining commission and a charity run by the country's first lady.

Norway's foreign ministry steered clear, but is considering chipping in for Cambodia's Miss Landmine, tentatively set for 12 months' time, even though Traavik admitted that some international aid agencies had dismissed the first contest as a "freak show".

"In principle we are all ready to go," said Traavik. "We have the support of the Cambodian authorities and we're collaborating with Cambodia's Disabled People's Organisation which is already, on my behalf, travelling about the
country meeting possible participants, who are enthusiastic."

In Cambodia there should be no shortage of contenders for the 2009 title. There are 25,000 amputees among the country's 63,000 victims of landmines and blasts from unexploded ordinance left after 30 years of civil war.

Up to 1m landmines remain buried, out of the estimated million mines planted along the border with Thailand after the invading Vietnamese left in 1989 and the 400,000 planted elsewhere in the country.

"That's a shockingly high number," said Tim Porter, the Cambodian programme director of the Halo Trust, whose staff cleared 40,000 mines in their sector alone last year.

But at least the lurking menace is claiming fewer victims. Last year,
Cambodia suffered 347 landmine victims, down from 450 in 2006. That, too, was an improvement on the 847 in 2002, the result of mines degrading with time and failing to explode.

Still, the legacy of years of injuries is grim and Traavik is sure to have contestants eager to win a new prosthesis and prize money in impoverished Cambodia.

Yet even he accepts that in the conservative Buddhist country the format will have to be radically different. "There's no question the women will be wearing bikinis," he said. "They will more likely be wearing traditional Khmer costumes. But undoubtedly there will be ways to highlight their disabilities."

Kek Galabru, the president of the Phnom Penh human rights group Licadho, is scornful of such a strategy to shine a light on tragedy.

"No doubt awareness is important," she said. "But for me this is using the victims. For them it is still very painful. But they're saying 'look at me, I'm still beautiful, even though I've lost my leg.' We don't need to raise awareness in this questionable way.

"I'm sure there'll be a lot of resistance from the Cambodian people. I can hear it now: 'What? A contest of the suffering?'"

Traavik remains unrepentant in the face of such distaste, adamant that the means justify the end.

"What I set out to achieve - indeed I think we've achieved it already - was to highlight globally a very serious and unnecessary social problem," he said. This contest attracts attention to the issue, but it also challenges our western way of looking at the third world. I'm so fed up of social campaigns with black and white photos of Africans or Cambodians, in rags."

Cambodia to host Miss Landmine amputee beauty pageant says founder

Miss Landmine Angola 2008

Apr 20, 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodia will play host to Miss Landmine 2009, the controversial beauty pageant's Norwegian organizer said Sunday.

Miss Landmine parades beautiful female amputee landmine victims on the catwalk as they compete to win prosthetic limbs.

Miss Landmine Angola 2008 was crowned the event's inaugural winner this month, and the pageant's founder, artist Morten Traavik, says he has his heart set on Cambodia as Miss Landmine's next stop.

'We are in principle all set up and ready to go, we already have candidates in place,' he said by email.

Despite backing from donors including the European Union, the pageant has drawn howls of protest from rights activists and feminists, who brand it colonialist, racist, sexist and exploitative.

Traavik has admitted that some international aid agencies have also labeled it 'a freak show' but denies the allegations, saying it raises landmine awareness and empowers female amputee participants.

The women receive glamorous photo shoots at resorts and high-end hotels and a Miss Landmine fashion magazine modelled on Vogue is also in the pipeline, according to the organization's website.

Despite a ban on beauty contests invoked by Prime Minister Hun Sen in September, 2006, Traavik said he has Cambodian government support.

State Cambodian Mine Action Authority secretary-general Sam Sotha expressed his 'appreciation and support of Landmine Girl,' in a signed letter.

Cambodia remains one of the most heavily mined nations in the world after a 30-year civil war, with more than 6 million mines still peppering the country, according to officials.

But critics remain unimpressed with Traavik's approach.

'If you are wondering just how low some people will sink this is just about it,' respected feminist and online author Sokari Ekine wrote on her website Black Looks.

Bloggers have also had a field day with the idea, with internet satirists caustically suggesting the theme could inspire further tasteless spinoffs from Miss Holocaust to Miss Ebola Virus.