Miss Landmine Cambodia, 2009

What could be sexier?

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.

The idea, of course, is to raise awareness about the devastating effects of land mines. But such a campaign in Cambodia seems terribly misplaced. Cambodians hardly need reminding about the dangers or prevalence of land mines.

A better strategy might be public-awareness campaigns in countries that manufacture land mines. The only way to guarantee that land mines stop maiming people is to stop making them.