Miss Landmine cancelled

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – A BEAUTY pageant in which landmine victims were to compete to win a prosthetic limb has been cancelled after the Cambodian government said it was in bad taste, organisers said Monday.

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

‘I’m not looking forward to breaking the news to the 20 candidates involved, as I know they will be very disappointed in the lack of support from Cambodian authorities,’ Norwegian pageant director Morten Traavik told AFP.

He said the exhibition will not take place after Cambodia’s Ministry of Social Affairs demanded cancellation of the contest to protect ‘the honour and dignity of people with disabilities’.

However the contest, intended to raise awareness about landmines and empower the disabled, will continue with Internet voting at miss-landmine.org, Traavik said.

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