Kiwi beauty ignores pleas to stay home

By TONY POTTER and AMIE RICHARDSONMiss World New Zealand is defying critics and threats of terrorism to compete for the Miss World title in Nigeria. Schoolgirl heiress Rachel Huljich, 18, has been urged to boycott the finals after a Muslim court there ordered Amina Lawal, 31, stoned to death for having a child out of wedlock. "It has been a very hard time for me and it probably would have been an easier way out to say ONo, I won’t go’ but I don’t think it would be as effective," she said yesterday. She said critics had a right to their opinion. "But I have decided to go. Other people think I shouldn’t and I respect their opinion. I hope they will now respect mine." Her decision has already attracted fresh criticism from Prime Minister Helen Clark. "It is incongruous for there to be a beauty pageant celebrating women when in other parts of the country a beautiful young woman has been condemned to death by stoning," a spokesman for the prime minister said. She said the government had strong views against the death penalty and death by stoning had been conveyed to the Nigerian government. But Huljich said protests against the stoning of Lawal would be more effective in Nigeria. She said she agonised over her decision and did not want to go to Nigeria with empty hands. On Friday she set up a website, www.saveamina.com, for Kiwis to plead for Lawal’s life. "There’s an electronic petition on it and I want everyone in New Zealand to sign it for me to present in Nigeria." She will take a letter from National’s foreign affairs spokes-man, Wayne Mapp, addressed to the president of Nigeria. She has written to other government ministers "asking them to send with me their letters of protest against the barbaric sentence imposed on Amina". She also wrote to the PM: "After much soul-searching and discussion, I believe that if I did not attend Miss World I would be abandoning Amina and her supporters. I have decided to travel to Nigeria where I can make statements condemning such barbarism ... "A letter of condemnation written by you would be a great way to reinforce New Zealand’s position. I would be proud to present this on behalf of New Zealand in the open formality of the Miss World pageant." Huljich said there were four major reasons for her decision to attend. "First, the European parliament has said Odon’t boycott’, Amnesty International doesn’t support a boycott and the Nigerian government is more or less saying the stoning won’t happen. But most importantly, Amina Lawal herself has said Olet them come’." Lawal is reported to have made this remark to Sergio Ellis, general secretary of the Italian-based Hands off Cain organisation, which campaigns worldwide against the death penalty. Before the final in the Nigeria capital Abuja, Miss World chief executive Julia Morley will read out a statement from the 110 contestants condemning the execution in a televised broadcast which is expected to be viewed by more than two billion people. Huljich’s father, millionaire Chris Huljich, said: "World opinion has changed dramatically over the last few weeks. And when that statement is read out at the start of the broadcast with all the contestants on stage, well you can’t have a more powerful statement than that, can you?" Huljich said there were concerns over security in the country, which has been targeted by terrorists, but he had been assured by contest organisers that contestants would be "protected 100%. That’s good enough for me". His daughter will be accompanied to London for a pre-pageant charity ball by her brother Peter, before she flies to Nigeria. Her parents, grandmother and brothers will go to Nigeria for the competition in the run-up to the final.