R.I. senators honor late photojournalist

Dith Pran, as a photographer for the New Yok Times in the 1980s.

By Karen Lee Ziner

Journal Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — As Rhode Island’s Cambodian community celebrates Cambodian New Year, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed yesterday introduced a Senate resolution honoring Dith Pran, a photojournalist whose heroism under the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime was documented in the 1984 film The Killing Fields. Dith died in New Jersey on March 30 of pancreatic cancer.
The Senate resolution honors Dith as one of the most dedicated and outspoken advocates for human rights in Cambodia and calls him “a modern-day hero and an exemplar of what it means to be a citizen of the United States and a citizen of the world.”
It states that the United States “owes a debt of gratitude to Dith Pran for his tireless work to prevent genocide and violations of fundamental human rights,” and calls on teachers throughout the country to spread Dith Pran’s message “by educating their students about his life, the genocide in Cambodia, and the collective responsibility of all people to prevent modern-day atrocities and human rights abuses.”
“Dith Pran was a witness to, and a fierce critic of, the greatest atrocities men have inflicted upon their fellow men,” said Whitehouse. “His willingness to share his story brought light to dark places, and hope to millions.”
Reed said, “Dith Pran devoted his life to exposing the horrors he experienced during the Cambodian genocide. He gave voice to the two million men, women and children who were killed by the Khmer Rouge. By sharing their stories and his own experiences, Mr. Dith’s work as an advocate for human rights will continue to have an impact for generations to come.”
As many fled Cambodia during the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge in 1975, Dith Pran sent his wife and children to safety abroad but stayed behind with investigative journalist Sydney H. Schanberg to help ensure that news of the events there reached the outside world.
Captured by the Khmer Rouge, he endured forced labor and beatings for four years until his escape in 1979. He coined the term “the killing fields” to describe the mass graveyards he witnessed during his 40-mile journey across the Cambodian border to a Thai refugee camp.
Dith reached the United States in 1980, and became a photojournalist for The New York Times. He founded the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project to educate individuals around the world of the horrors he survived.
On March 30, the news that Dith Pran had died spread quickly through Rhode Island, home to one of the largest Cambodian refugee populations in the country, and where Dith paid numerous visits to give voice to the Cambodian holocaust.
Pich Chhoeun, former president of the Cambodian Society of Rhode Island, said, “Without Dith Pran, I don’t think people would be aware of the Cambodian struggle as much as they have for the last 30 years or so. His life, his story — certainly the movie — I think contributed to allowing people internationally to know what happened in Cambodia.”
kziner@projo.com