Miss Landmine: exploitation or bold publicity for the victims?

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

"I'm a great believer in counterpoint - a good old theatre trick," he said. "Here the counterpoint is to put 'landmine' and 'miss' together

Miss Benguela
Ana Diogo